Untitled Document

In all the adventures my family has shared, I remember one late afternoon in particular. My mom and sister were out spending the day in town, so my dad and I had the afternoon together. He used to read the series of Narnia by C.S. Lewis to me. Our favorite stories were the ones of “Cair Paravel” and its tales of castles and adventurous battles. One of our favorite activities together was to build sand castles down at the creek on our property. We called these castles “Cair Paravels.” We would spend precious time wading the waters, finding the perfect shore on which to build our domain. We would carefully gather a pile of sand together and then gather the most beautiful pebbles and stones to decorate our castle.

Though these instances happened multiple times, this particular afternoon we were building a castle to show my mom and sister when they got home. I remember my dad saying, “let’s get out of the water now, so the mud will settle and be clear and clean by the time mom gets home.” I was very excited to show my mom and sister our creation. It’s odd now that I can’t remember their reactions, but I do remember my dad making that suggestion. Looking back on it, I see now the tenderness in my dad’s ways. He cared about me so much that he would sacrifice an afternoon of relaxation to run around with me. He was also so involved and dedicated to our project, that he too shared in the excitement of presenting our masterpiece to our family. He really wanted our castle to turn out well, so the reactions of my mother and sister would bring me joy.

Dad