MY SUNSHINE

A sunny smile!

-->

She loves everybody

Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy
 

Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry
 

Sunshine on the water looks so lovely
 

Sunshine almost always makes me high

 

If I had a day that I could give you
I'd give to you a day just like today
 

If I had a song that I could sing for you
I'd sing a song to make you feel this way

Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy
Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry
 

Sunshine on the water looks so lovely
Sunshine almost always makes me high

If I had a tale that I could tell you
I'd tell a tale sure to make you smile
 

If I had a wish that I could wish for you
I'd make a wish for sunshine all the while

Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy
Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry
 

Sunshine on the water looks so lovely
Sunshine almost always makes me high
 

Sunshine almost all the time makes me high
Sunshine almost always

Words by John Denver, Music by John Denver, Dick Kniss and Mike Taylor

My kids and proud of them all

Isn’t it interesting how a bit of music can take you somewhere or bring you to someone? Isn’t it wonderful how sweet life becomes when we go to those places or see those we love that evoke such emotions?

 Whenever I hear those lyrics and music above: there is only one person I can think of, my daughter Ellen. When I met her for the first time, I saw this beautiful little pink bundle, with her beautiful mom and suddenly, they lowered heaven for me to see what it is like.

Just a happy person

41 years later, she still shines on my world, still gives me the initial joy I had when we first met. You know by now she is developmentally disabled, physically limited, but can love and be loved with far greater purity than anyone I know of! I owe her so much because I brought her into this world and she doesn’t have all the tools that most of us take for granted. We can’t plan a vacation and can’t plan a wedding or celebrate the birth of her child. We have been denied the basic happiness of a father-daughter relationship, like so many people have. But that will have to be ok, because that is just the way it is. She has given me a clue and a lesson in life on how to handle disappointment. When she sees me she smiles, she gets excited and is emotionally and physically happy to see me! No one on this Earth does that of course: no one gives me such joy in my being. I know that I will give all I have for her, because she IS my daughter first and foremost.

Add caption

But like I say, she is a teacher. She has taught me that my children are special to me. There s nothing I wouldn’t do for them, any of them. When we raise children we make mistakes, we all do. No one of us is perfect but all of us as parents try. If one of them makes a mistake in life, we try to help them clean up the milk and upright the glass so to speak. We love our children unconditionally, and if one is in trouble: I’m in trouble. My greatest fear is that a child of mine would be homeless, sick or so poor he or she is starving, but so is yours.

Children when they grow are too busy comparing their life with their peers, desperately trying NOT to be like their parents. Then one day they will open their mouth and hear the words of their parent echo out, and before they realize it, they just heard themselves sound like one of us!

But my little sunshine need not worry about that, for one thing her old man will continue the struggle to fight for her, get her what she needs and give her all the love I have, so her sunshine never sets.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETHEART! 
I love you,
Dad