I'm grateful to be here. I'm thankful for a lot.
Most of all, I'm thankful for my dad. We buried his body last Saturday. He was 85 and went like he lived, as much on his own terms as possible. He and I only hunted together a couple seasons, when I was still in high school. But he made sure I knew how to be safe and then let me to find my own way.
I miss him.
As I was sitting next to him in the hospice, just holding his hand and occasionally speaking to him in his mother tongue of German - though born and raised here he didn't speak English regularly until he started school - I came to the conclusion that "honor your father and mother" is most fully fulfilled by living your life as best you can, whatever that life might be.
I'm grateful for that insight, too.
