I have a rectangular shaped standing fan – abandoned and ignored for a long, long, time. From the time immediately before the birth of the COVID-19 pandemic. Why? Its blades were intimate friends with dust particles. Plus… personal laziness!
Out of the blue, my motivation to clean it resurrected. I marched it outside. Commandeered a chair, two screw drivers – a flat head and a Phillips – and a dust cloth. I meticulously struggled to take this fan apart to extract the inner blade for cleaning. But it was well protected like the metal armour of medieval soldiers.
Three things were against me – my underdeveloped technological fingers, and the total ignorance about pulling apart a fan, and the fan’s revengeful spirit for being abandoned. Determination was my only weapon. So systematically I proceeded. Removing screws, screws, screws – countless screws. Unbelievable the number of screws this fan accommodated. The task was like an uphill climb – moments of movements, spaces of stillness, unable to figure out a problem, and then, voila! Finding solutions.
Upon completion of the job, after almost 90 minutes, a revelatory moment appeared like a sunray through dark stormy clouds. I have done what my father would have done – the determination to systematically focus and complete a task. There’s a difference. He’s mechanically inclined, I am not. Notwithstanding, I have inherited this trait of determination and focus from my father.
We inherit traits from our fathers. Jesus from Joseph. You from your father. What are those traits you inherit from your father? Your father may be absent from your life, but you still have some of his traits. A friend once remarked, “I met my father at age twenty-one. I was stunningly awed to realize we shared similar traits.”
What are the traits you share with your father – fathers who are dead or alive, estranged or involved, loved or hated? Identify those traits worth celebrating. Celebrate it.
Don’t forget, you may also have some of his undesirable traits. Don’t deny it. Be aware!
Beloved Reflections 