Dawn and my dad

Cycling to work with lovely blue skies and pink clouds this morning and a tang of Autumn in the air and I want to cycle on forever! It made me think of my dad who loved to see the sunrise. Towards the end of his life his sleeping habits got a bit erratic. My feeling was that he was reverting to his (Second World) war time sleeping habits. He was in the Navy and was on small ships - converted trawlers (small fishing boats) - and they did 'watches' i.e. 6 hours on 6 hours off. So many times he might have had a bad night - seasick or afraid of a possible or actual attack by German plane or submarine, and so to see the dawn rise was wonderful, full of promise and life. So I think that experience was repeated in his final days. I remember him saying from his hospital bed that he couldn't he could see nature from out of the window!

Besides the dawn he loved the stars and passed on this love to me, and I have passed this onto my daughter. In those long hours of the night with not much to do but to keep watch under a starry night.

I keep finding these threads in my life of my dad and my mum. And I am more at peace now with their imperfections and with my grieve. I am thankful and each dawn is a new day for me and an extra day and I hope it is a good one for you.

Best to all,

Bill-on-bike.
PS Jupiter the planet is still very bright and easy to see on a clear night. Creation is just awesome!