Life Through the Footsteps My Father Left
By Te’tro Amaru
It’s truly ironic that my father, who I once proclaimed to know nothing about and life of life while I was in high school, now maintains to be the foundation of my knowledge of an about life. As life continues to take me though its roller coaster ride of ups and downs, my father continues to use his life’s experience and wisdom to focus my energies in a positive direction. A quarter through my life and I’m as confused as ever. “What could happen,” you ask?
Could it be that I graduated from college but wasn’t truly ready for the realization of the “real world”? Or is this something that everyone goes through at my age? The uncertainty and haunting fear of becoming a thirty-something year old still depending on my parents for financial support and a failure within the game of life.
Time and time again I maintain that life is what we make it as I secure myself within the ongoing wisdom of my father’s testament, “Success breeds success.” Now at age forty-something, a self-made man, successful entrepreneur, and a grandfather, I feel secure within his wisdom and truly believe that if I am steadfast in my beliefs that I will overcome life’s confusion and become successful as well. The tools have been implemented and the desire to accomplish my goals in life have hardened within my mind. The only unanswered question is how.
With the many talents and abilities I possess it would seem an easy thing to figure out. However, life seems to sidetrack me and through monkey wrenches into my plans ever so often, by way of female relationships, finance dilemmas, and most of all impatience. At these moments in my life it helps me to have a father as a best friend to turn his wisdom and experience to refocus my desires. So on his day of days, Father’s Day, we talked about life and discussed what he considered a normal dilemma that everyone my age goes through – the what to do now stage. I told him of my fears, my hopes, and dreams,, and of what I was doing to fulfill them and seemingly constant barriers that I was running into within every positive step I took. His reply was simply, “That’s life.”
Some things are so simple that it’s hard to see at times. Which is kind of easier said than done, when it comes t the predicaments of life. Still, by the end of the conversation, I firmly came to the realization that it is better to do something than to do nothing at all. I could fail without a try and only thoughts of what I should do and not do. Or I could simply do the things that I do best, give it my all, and pray for a successful result in the end.
And with those last thoughts and shared words between my father and me, life appeared settled (for now) and my desires refocused. There are a lot of things that I could do without in my life, but I do not know where I would be or who I would be with without the guidance of my father. So as life goes on I remain strong and focus on achieving what I’ve set out to do regardless of the various barriers that may come my way. One day at a time, doing all that I can by taking one step at a time, with my friend and father forever by my side, life’s mystery become elementary. There are a lot of things that happen throughout one’s life to make that person acquire certain thoughts and do certain unexplainable actions. But yet if we all remain focused on what we have set out to do in life, it will make the rewards that much sweeter in the end.
Copyright for the Homeless Grapevine July 1999 Issue 36 Cleveland Ohio.