A father holds a special place in a little girl's heart forever!
Well, today is Sunday, June 21, 2009, Father’s Day.
I am enjoying the company of my husband, the father of our 3 children, since he decided to drive up to San Marcos to be with me and Chase, both of us attending Texas State University, Chase for his BS and I for my MEd. Brooke and her boyfriend Joey were going to join us, too, but since she has been a little under the weather with some food poisoning or something, we weren’t able to enjoy her company up in Austin as originally planned. So, Jack and Chase and I went to this great little restaurant/bakery/coffee shop in a small, old historical home here in San Marcos about two blocks from the condo called “The Blue Goat Gourmet.” Chase and I bought Jack’s lunch and the food was delicious.
The Blue Goat Gourmet
The two exterior doors were filled with wavy clear, aqua, and blue stained glass designs and the simple seating area inside included the expected tables and chairs, but also a couple of black leather loveseats facing each other with a bookshelf full of books, magazines, and newspapers between them against the wall. There were also displays of various pieces of colorful art adorning the white walls and shelving, many depicting various individual artists’ expressions of blue goats. Some of my favorite artistic pieces were a couple of miniatures made out of clay or ceramic, I couldn’t tell which. The most clever was a little stack of a couple of colorful books with a brain sitting on top of them.
The owner and employees were friendly and attentive. The food was fantastic, too. I had the small version of the Ben Franklin sandwich (turkey, provolone, and pesto mayo) on french bread and a small cup of Spinach Curry soup. Sounds weird, perhaps, but it was uniquely tasty! Jack and Chase had mediterranean salads and a different kind of sandwich from mine, some kind of chicken, I think, along with a fruit salad of strawberries, mango, pineapple, and melon. Maybe not necessarily what one would consider a “manly” meal, but we all enjoyed it, just the same.
Earlier in the morning, at 9 a.m. to be exact, Jack and I had gone to the little church not even a full block down the street from the condo, Calvary Chapel of the Springs, where the preacher and his family hail from Southern California. I think my niece Karen and her family attend the Calvary Chapel of Carlsbad, CA… same “chain” of denomination. Chase couldn’t seem to wake up in time to go with us, so we enjoyed the music and the service without him. It was good to hear some old familiar hymns performed by the musical team in new, more current, upbeat ways. The message was engaging, too, about how the love of Christ supercedes the law and how the freedom Christ gives us, however, shouldn’t give us license to allow our fleshly desires to run amuck. We live “in the Spirit” and hopefully see the fruit of that life in us as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, perseverance, and self-control. Which reminds me of my parents and my dad.
Neither Jack nor I can be in the physical presence of our fathers since they have both passed away, and I can hardly believe that it’s been over 10 years since that happened. We both miss our dads and talk about our individual and shared memories of them both all the time. I know I want to keep the memory of my fantastic father alive, since men like him are rarer and rarer to find all the time. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this world will never be the same without him. For example, not that it is directly related, but nonetheless, 9-11 occurred a year after my father’s death…
Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers in my life: my husband, my brother, my brothers-in-law, my nephews, cousins, friends, and coworkers, and even those of you I may not even know. It is easy to father a child, but it isn’t easy to BE a GOOD father to a child. I admire those of you who are or have been or will be. God bless you all!
