Happy Birthday, Marine

Today is October 29th, 2025. If my dad were alive, we would be celebrating his 95th birthday today.

I just finished praying a rosary for him. It would have been a great day to attend daily Mass. The anniversary of his death is October 18th, so I have been spending a good bit of time reflecting on him in the last couple of weeks.

I have a list of "shoulds" that are a mile long. The things I "should" have done or said. Don't we all?

Instead of rifling through a pile of things I can't go back and do (or undo), I thought I'd drop myself and you some encouragement here of what can be done today. Not all of these directly correlate to my list of "shoulds", but they fall in a prescription of good for all relationships. Let's ride...

1. I recently read an exercise that a friend told in a story about the five circles of people in our lives. He read this in a book called "Chasing Daylight" written by a CEO with a termonal diagnosis. The author wanted to gracefully close out the relationships in his life, and quickly realized he needed to prioritize those relationships. The first circle being your spouse & kids. Second circle, immediate family. Third circle, lifetime friends. Fourth circle, close business associates. Fifth circle, classmates, past colleagues, neighbors, good people he knew.

The people in those first couple of circles deserve most of our attention. I'm grateful for every moment I had with my dad, and I've give a king's ransom for just a few more moments. I am getting better at prioritizing time and attention but I wish I was better at this in the living years.

2. If we ever have the privilege of keeping the final watch with someone, stay close. Don't go home, don't get coffee. Just stay close, hold their hand, talk to them and pray over them.

3. If we love someone, we better tell them, and we better do it in the way that they best feel it and understand it. Let us not ever wonder "if they knew" how we felt.

4. If we have the ability to call or visit our parents, let's do it as often as we can.

5. Hold on to the good memories, forgive the difficult ones.

6. Let us not take tomorrow for granted. Ours, or anyone else's.

7. Let us trust that God is going to take care of us.

Love you pop.