spanish moss

today my dad and i wandered around Hermann Park and strolled beneath rows of live oak trees shrouded in spanish moss. between the trees were tall lamp posts that reminded me of Narnia. truth be told, probably every lamp post reminds me of Narnia.

lately good days are summed up by simple and beautiful interactions. like tonight my dad and i ate some really healthy (albeit really awful) fish and drank a bottle of wine...we talked about when my brother and sisters and i were little, when he was little, and what it was like growing up in the deep south. we laughed. i really like laughing with my dad. i think because along with my mom, he's known me the longest, so laughing is sort of like breathing. natural.

i took him to my new house and showed him around the neighborhood....we met some of the beautiful souls i've had the privilege of working with around there. we churned almond butter and bought him some texas beer to take home to drink with my mom.

yesterday we talked about racial tension in the south and what it was like for him as a child in the 60's. it's really cool to let my mind imagine the scenes and the people...the history that he's lived through. i think that's also why i enjoy my dad...simply because he's older than me, so he's got better stories. man he can tell some good stories. so much of my childhood can be summed up in one word. imagination. my parents did an incredible job of nurturing our imagination and sense of wonder at the world. possibility.

we've eaten really good mexican food and really good jamaican. we've walked and talked and sang a little. he probably doesn't know actually how much it means to me that he took the time to come down here. i know he's got responsibility and weighty things to do at home, but he put it aside for a few hot and miserably humid houston days with me. yea i cherish these days. walking under the moss-covered oak trees, reading by the daylight and watching it rain -with my dad.