He was also sick, we just didn't know how sick. Medicine back then was not what it is today. Today it is not what it will be in another decade. He hurt a lot. Trying to find some short lived relief he and Four Roses became good friends. He took all kinds of medicine, but nothing helped. I recall him lying on the couch in pain dreading going to work in the afternoon. But, just like you, he would go. He had a family to support and promises to keep.
Because of his work ethic and commitment to family and community he was well respected by all who knew him. He could borrow money at the bank on a handshake...try that.
Pops never talked much about his dreams until I was in the army - Viet Nam...a new war, a new time. Even then he still could not do anything about his future. There remained two kids at home in public school. He could, however, now dimly see that there was a light at the end of the tunnel. So, slowly, cautiously, he started preparing.

Like me, daddy loved the fall and winter, holidays and snow, hunting and fishing. He was planning his biggest Christmas ever when word came he was dead. He had passed from the land of the living without realizing his aspirations. He had given the man his last conscious hour...not for the man but for his family, friends, creditors, and community. He essentially died in the factory, on the job. keeping promises and fulfilling commitments, dimly aware of the suppressed dreams forced to the back of his mind.
Dad was a great example and mostly because of his work ethic, I am a work-a-holic to this day. So, like you, I am painfully aware it is Monday! I know you are having a rough day. I know you were tired before you started. I know you were depressed before you got of bed. I know you are full of doubts. I also know you have wants, wishes, hopes and dreams however weak they may be today. I know you want to walk out on everything and never go back. I know.
Monday or not, it ain't happening. So smile! It's Monday! Dare to dream! It's Monday!
Love something or someone more than yourself...It's Monday! Keep your dreams alive and keep walking. You are headed in the right direction. You are headed for a new beginning, It's Monday! You can be more than a survivor, It's Monday!

Like you, I remain haunted by the spirit that drove both my Dad and American Poet Robert Frost who wrote: "I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep; and miles to go before I sleep". But, let us not wait until we sleep like my dad did for then there are no more dreams to chase in the land of the living.
I know...I know.
It's still Monday!
But, will you have something worth getting up for next Monday? Will you have something bigger than yourself that draws you out of bed early? Will you have something that puts a smile on your face and a spring in your step like when young love consumed you? Will you dance in the rain and do for others like your heart had never been broken? Will you walk with your head held high as if you had never learned grown up things like those we love we lose, there is little love or care in the world, there is never enough money to go around, there is no Santa Clause, the tooth fairy don't exist, Halloween is just an excuse to eat too much candy, and the Easter Bunny is a figment of some retailer's imagination?
I don't know...........Do you?
Can you put these things behind you and become a child at heart?...full of love?...accepting all things?...hating to go to bed rather than to get up?...and eagerly anticipating Tuesday with all the surprises it holds for you?
You have time! The Lord God created the world and everything in it in less than a week. You're still breathing, and It's only Monday!

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