Everybody needs beauty as well as bread
places to play in and pray in,
where nature may heal and give strength
to body and soul alike.
~ from THE YOSEMITE by John Muir
I am not sure at what point I realized that the man whom I had seen as my all-powerful and invincible father not only wanted me as I am, but also needed me to stand by him through the long journey into his own death. My father needed my friendship. It still seems to me to be an astonishing gift of God's grace that in the last years of his life I was able to stand with him as his friend who was his adult child.