Always proud to call you my Dad.❤️

He carved the wisdom of the world in salt and morning light,
A man who held no gavel, who kept no soul in sight
For judgment’s bitter shadow, but stood where shadows fell,
A shield for every stranger, a soul who wished them well.
He taught me how to honor life, to let all spirits be,
A heart as vast and open as the hunger of the sea.

He walked among the wild things, he loved the earth’s own breath,
For he had mastered living, and lost the fear of death,
Working where the tides turn, a life earned from the deep,
With secrets of the currents that only sailors keep.
He’d watch the gray horizons where the sky and water meet,
And teach me how to stand before the world upon my feet.

"There is a reason you are here," he’d say with steady eyes,
"Beneath the shifting heavens and the changing of the skies.
There’s water on both sides of you—the birth and then the end—
The cycle of the rushing tide, the arc that will not bend.
You must look upon the challenge, the wave that rolls in tall,
And know that you have strength enough to rise above it all."

He told me, "See the obstacle, yet hold your steady course,
Respect the pull of nature, but trust your inner force.
If you can face the tempest and the work that must be done,
The victory is written long before the day is won."
I carry now his compass, and the lessons that he gave—
To love the life I’m living, and navigate the wave.