Before I start, I want to wish my father Michael a very happy 60th birthday today, and to anyone reading, please do me the honor of wishing my Pops a happy one. He was a great man, who like many of us, suffered more than his fair share but still held his head high in the face of adversity. Through trials and tribulations, he always loved me and I knew it. Whatever our fate after mortality, I hope that at the very least, he's in peace. Much deserved peace.
You will always live on in my heart, Dad. I will do my very best to honor you and live the life you were never able to live. I dedicate my degree to you - something I know you'd be so proud of. My Irish eyes always smile at the memory of you.
Now on to gayer events! Today, as you all know, is none other than St. Paddy's Day! A day when we Irish get to be vocal about the many things we have accomplished as a people. Not only those in Ireland today, but those of us here in the US and of course, of course our ancestors. Irish immigrants. More than 12% (just over 36 million) of the United States population can trace their ancestry back to Ireland. A great deal of the hard work it took to make America the country it is today was done on the backs of Irish immigrants in work such as canal building (Erie being the most famous), bridge building (Golden Gate again being the most famous example), railroad laying (the first transcontinental railroad prior to WWI), servitude, lumber work, civil construction, and so much more. Despite their hard work, it largely went unappreciated and Irish immigrants were discriminated against and harsh stereotypes were cast upon them, many of which I still hear today. Even though the Irish have been primarily Catholic since before our recent memories will allow, they were originally a Paganpeoples, as were most of the Western Europeans before the Crusades.
I raise my glass to my Irish family, to my Irish ancestors, all Irish peoples of days gone by of today and of tomorrow...
"A Little Bit of Everything" from the ruminations of a bohemian. Inasmuch, I am pretty much a mix between Kat Von D and Paula Deen, with a couple side orders of Stephen Colbert and George Carlin - and a sprinkle of Marie Osmond thrown in there for good measure.
Like it or lump it, y'all!
Find something you are passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it. ~Julia Child
"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."
~Melody Beattie
“ A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” ~Sir Winston Churchill
“The winds of grace are always blowing, but you have to raise the sail. ”
~ Ramakrishna
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."
~ Thomas A. Edison
“… What we love determines what we seek.
What we seek determines what we think and do.
What we think and do determines who we are – and who we will become.”
~ President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
“Tragedy plus time equals humor, so you might as well laugh about it now.”
~ Marie Osmond
"It is right, it should be so; man was made for joy and woe; and when this we rightly know, thro' the world we safely go."
~William Blake
“Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark. In the hopeless swamps of the not quite, the not yet, and the not at all, do not let the hero in your soul perish and leave only frustration for the life you deserved, but never have been able to reach. The world you desire can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.”
~ Ayn Rand (note: I disagree with virtually EVERYTHING else Ayn had to say in her lifetime, but this, this strikes a chord. So it shall be.)
"humans are designed to seek comfort and order, and so if they have comfort and order, they tend to plant themselves, even if their comfort isn't all that comfortable. and even if they secretly want for something better." ~donald miller
"if you want to master something, teach it." ~unknown
"Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day, I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return." ~Unknown
...Life is Difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. Once we truly know that life is difficult--once we truly understand and accept it--then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters." ~The Road Less Traveled
Before I start, I want to wish my father Michael a very happy 60th birthday today, and to anyone reading, please do me the honor of wishing my Pops a happy one. He was a great man, who like many of us, suffered more than his fair share but still held his head high in the face of adversity. Through trials and tribulations, he always loved me and I knew it. Whatever our fate after mortality, I hope that at the very least, he's in peace. Much deserved peace. 
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