Washington, DC | Iyar 5782
G-d willing, we are here and the world has not faltered to this day.
It is that time, and I cannot believe that it is! Slow approaching Spring quickly rolls over to summer bringing the end of the Spring days closer to my father’s birthday. This year he will be turning sixty years young. I cannot believe it, and where did the time flow so quickly!
It feels like yesterday we were in the woods celebrating papa’s 40th birthday outside of my birth town. It was a beautiful day. Grass was green, and my siblings and I were still children. It was a perfect birthday celebration, and the celebration seemed like a perfect gift for papa. It was a happy day with an abundance of food without a thought about the uncertainty of our future. Little did we all know that in a couple of months our family would move across the ocean and settle in Sacramento.
Almost twenty years later today and having moved many times ever since, I found myself living here in Washington the Capital with my sister while my parents and brothers settled in South Carolina. I never thought that life would be as it is now around my father’s sixtieth birthday. I surely believed and looked forward to all of my siblings being married with families and children of our own as I know that is what papa wished for all of us. It would have been the best gift for papa’s sixtieth birthday to be surrounded by all of us. Unfortunately, it is not the case.
I have been thinking for months about what would be the best gift for my father for his birthday and nothing seems to stick. He is a very simple man. He has everything he needs, and most importantly, he has my mom as his wife. His children are healthy, and he has grandsons and granddaughters. What can I possibly give him to uplift his spirit?
I googled this same question a couple of times in the last couple of months. I have discussed it with my sister, but it was all in vain. At one point I said, perhaps I can give him money to purchase whatever he wants, and then thought, “That is just silly!”. He gives money to us on our birthdays, and the last gift I received from papa for my birthday in 2021 lays on my bedside table with no need to use.
I thought long and hard, and here I am wondering if there is anything that would actually move my dad. Yes there is, but it is not something one can buy. If I could purchase, I would probably afford such a purchase at this point in my life. However, this matter is the matter of hearts and destinies. It is all in the hands of G-d as G-d plans each individual’s life and presents one with options to choose from. Sometimes, what one chooses can devastate the other one leaving more unanswered questions and a heartache.
So I pray as I have always prayed but with an elevated faith. I beseech my G-d to pour out blessings on my father’s house and his children, not because of my father’s many good deeds but because of the mercy of Hashem. Only by mercy of G-d should my prayers be answered that my siblings and I are coupled G-d willing. No gift on earth would make my papa’s heart more merry and no physical object would satisfy his thirst other than to see all his children with their other halfs building new families and raising children of our own.
I pray for all fathers out there who have remained faithful to G-d. These fathers should see their children celebrating the beginnings of new families, the birth of children and much more. No father should want to be away from home to be in solitude alone in constant prayer for his daughters and sons happiness. No father should see and hear bad news. So, I give my papa a blessing that from now on his life should be filled with only good news after good news, celebrations of joy and happiness, new beginnings and new positive dramas.
I am personally on a mission to be a part of this blessing, and submit myself to the will of Hashem. May all that is good accompany my siblings and I, and may good news delivered to my papa elevate his spirit and reveal to him the will of Hashem. G-d knows the perfect timing for a perfect coupling.
For your patience and endurance, thank you my readers.
Lana Curdoglo 