My dad and I go to the store twice a day. It’s a time when we connect about many things. It usually starts with one of us processing the relentless difficulty of mom, which usually ends with us laughing and confessing that we still love her nonetheless. We talk about many things on these jaunts to the store; going to the remote cabin in Potter County; what we’re going to build next in the shed-turned-workspace-turned-mancave; me reminding him where we are going every minute; him telling me about how much he loves operating various excavating rigs; and of course so many trips down memory lane.

But there are also these moments when my dad says things so honest and unassumingly enlightened that I’m left speechless. I want to share a few of those moments.

On one of our trips to the store my dad decided to stay in the car. “Rog, I’m just going to stay in the car and dream.”

“Are you going to take a nap?”

“No, I’m just going to let my mind wander until my thoughts turn into something beautiful.”

He wasn’t trying to be poetic or spiritual. He wasn’t trying to be inspirational or metaphoric. He wasn’t planning to post this on Social Media or trying to impress me. He was literally being literal. That is exactly what he was going to do.

When I first moved back here I caught my dad in moment of reverence. We sat down in the living room to have dinner and just by chance I saw out of the corner of my eye my dad bow his head for 5 seconds. I swear in all my years of Iiving I have never seen anyone in the kind of honest prayer and gratitude that I saw him in. He wasn’t saying grace. He wasn’t doing something out of obligation or habit. He wasn’t asking for me or mom to join him. It was such a genuine lean into pray that I felt myself all of a sudden in pray just by touching the hem of his own expression.

In another of our trips to the store we stopped to let an elderly couple cross the street. My dad said, “Rog, I’ve never told anyone this, and you might think this is weird, but anytime I see someone who has less than me or who is suffering I pray to the Good Lord to help them so they can have a happier life free of pain.”

I think I died for a moment.

One of the Buddhist practices that has gained popularity in the yoga and spiritual world is the practice of Metta or The Loving Kindness Prayer. it’s a genuine offering of well-wishing to someone who needs it— a loved one, someone you’re in conflict with, a stranger, the world at large. For many years I’ve practiced it, taught it, and witnessed it hundreds of times. But I swear this was the first time that I felt it’s true meaning.

I’m humbled and in awe at the sheer simple and genuine nature of his faith. I never really thought of my dad as a man of faith, but watching my dad love the people around him, strangers, and the world at large reveals a part of my dad that I somehow neglected to see.

My dad has become the father I’ve always wanted, my best friend, and my spiritual teacher. He’s not perfect or refined or equipped with worldly knowledge or literate in spiritual texts or practices, but his love, devotion, and faith is so genuine it transcends everything else.