« May 2007 | Main | July 2007 »

June 27, 2007

Click here to see the video diary of my trip

Posted by trevor at 09:13 PM | Comments (0)

June 20, 2007

The Napkin Chronicles part 10

Posted by trevor at 06:08 PM | Comments (0)

June 17, 2007

Father's Day

I took this photograph of a father and his son playing in the surf during a vacation a couple of summers ago. I was so touched and inspired by this man’s overwhelming love for his child. The way he cherished his boy reminds me of my dad.

I wrote my father the following letter some years ago:

Dear Dad,

I just wanted to thank you so much for the fantastic childhood you and mom gave me. I often want to be a child again so that I can feel the love, warmth, joy and security you always gave me.

Although money was very hard to come by while we were growing up, I never felt deprived of anything. Your love has given me more wealth than money could ever buy.

I will never forget the time you held me in your arms when I was so badly stung by the Jelly Fish in Durban.

I will never forget your tears when I went into surgery at six years old to have my severely squint left eye repaired.

I will never forget the one single tear that ran down your smiling check when you took me to Linksfield Primary School on my first day.

I will never forget you adjusting my tie before the high school dance. (I will always remember your smile and wink as I turned to say goodbye to you at the front door.)

I will never forget you passing me a care package through the barbed wire fence after our twelve weeks of basic training. (I can still feel your hand ruffling my hair as I sobbed, begging you to take me away from the two years of military training that ripped my childhood out of my soul and left it whimpering alongside the road to Fourth Field Regiment.)

I will never forget waving goodbye to you when I left South Africa. Not knowing if I would ever see you again. In my mind I still see the slow motion image of you with your arm around mom waving goodbye to me as I boarded the plane.

Thank you dad for giving me the best childhood a person could ever hope for.

Trev

My mum says my dad cried as hard as she’d ever seen him cry when he received my letter.

The letter took me months to send because I wanted to add so much to it and didn’t know how to end it. Eventually I sent it as is.

I’m so glad I did.

Two weeks later my father passed away suddenly. Stunned I flew home from America to be with my family. (The flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg was the longest 18 hours I have ever experienced in my life.)

At home, while helping my mum sort through my dad’s belongings I found the letter in his wallet.

He died with my letter in his pocket.

He died knowing how much I appreciated and loved him.

Happy Father's Day dad. I miss you so much.

Posted by trevor at 08:08 AM | Comments (1)

June 10, 2007

During my run this morning I saw a group of men scraping and painting over some ugly graffiti that really spoils the hike and bike trail where I jog daily. As I got closer I noticed that they were doing this because they had been sentenced to community service by the court. As I passed the workers I slowed down and thanked them for cleaning up the graffiti. I told them I really appreciated what they were doing. The men seemed totally surprised. They looked up from their work and didn’t quite know how to react.

After a pregnant pause they spontaneously responded with “you’re welcome” and “no problem buddy” and “sure thing”. The transformation from hang-dog-shame to community-pride was pretty cool to see.

At the end of my run I saw the supervisor who had been watching over the crew on the bridge. He was with another group in a truck. He leaned out of the window and called me over.

“That’s the most positive thing they’ve heard since they’ve been in the system,” he said. “You made their day.”

“Actually.” I said. “They made my day.”

Posted by trevor at 04:37 PM | Comments (0)

June 09, 2007

From my sketch journal...

Posted by trevor at 08:02 AM | Comments (0)

June 08, 2007

I was sitting on a bench yesterday and pondering. I thought about the courts in California and wondered how they could be so inhumane by taking Paris Hilton’s cell phone away from her while she is incarcerated. What an injustice! The news reverberated around the world. This awful sentence and cruel punishment actually made headlines across the planet displacing the not-so-important news that 80 children die a day in Darfur and that every day, around the world, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes. That works out to one child every five seconds. Wow. Something is wrong somewhere.

Posted by trevor at 07:25 AM | Comments (0)

June 03, 2007

No Words

Sometimes a simple touch can be more powerful than a waterfall of endless words that tumble end over end out of somebody’s mouth.

When Alex was first diagnosed with cancer at ten years-old his world was turned upside down. Not only had his mom passed away when he was an infant, but his grandfather died a few months before Alex was diagnosed. He is a cancer free young man today. I asked him what comforted him the most that day.

“In the doctor's waiting roomy my dad just held me in his arms. He kept on holding me. I felt his heart beating for both of us. Then he smiled and took my hand. He held my hand tightly all the way back to the car without saying a word. As we walked together I knew, without him having to say anything, that he would love me and take care of me no matter what. And he did.”

Posted by trevor at 12:38 PM | Comments (0)