All of this taught me to be willing to take risks for what I believed in then, and believe in today.  I learned from him to stay the course when challenges came up and I learned from him not to judge people.  Our house was always open to the most diverse of people from Asian exchange students to local fortune tellers; there was always some one who could show us a different way of looking at the world.

My father taught me to appreciate the people like him in my life.  And today I get to say Happy Birthday Dad.

As I say this I recognize just how much of this litany holds value for every person out there.  We all have had people in our lives who were capable of teaching us so much if we would only let them.  Do we recognize them, give them credit, honour them?  We do our best, yet in order to do justice we must be able to see the gifts with the faults.  The faults must be there for us to see our own abilities; for us to develop and follow a vision for ourselves.  If these wonderful people in our lives were perfect we would be unable to see the way to our own perfection.  Because of their imperfections they light our way always to a greater experience.

We often see people from a limiting perspective of the flesh and bones standing before us.  Yet people are so much more.  Every person is a depth and breadth of passion that makes the physical shell truly insignificant.  And often it is that flaw in the shell, ‘that thing’ about them we really dislike which is the doorway to the wonderful relationship they can be in our lives.  Even more often the thing we don’t like in them, when we get down to letting it go, turns out to be our own hurt and intolerance, our own judgments and expectations.  When we let go of our opinions for the sake of love and friendship we are always the greatest beneficiaries. 

So if you are seeing the flaws in someone close to you maybe its time to change your focus.  Maybe just allow those flaws and start noticing more all the things you really appreciate.  I am sure you will ultimately find yourself to be the greatest beneficiary of your broadened perspectives.