There's a Light At the End of Every Dark Tunnel

My father has smoked cigarettes all of my life. For the longest time I thought it was a nasty habit. I'm not sure if that was because I really believed it was or because that's what my other family members told me. As I've grown up, matured, changed, and become who I've wanted to be, my mindset has morphed into something I never imagined it would. As far as my dad's smoking goes, I've learned to see in a different light. To me I see love, art, imagination, pain, struggle, ease, peace, and many other things. I've been trying to find light in every dark place I see.


When I went to California this summer, I took a few *new* pictures of my father. Pictures of him smoking and the way I see it. My sister commented on them and said, "eew, gross." If she doesn't want to see the light in that darkness then that's fine. I know that I live a happier, more peaceful life, realizing what Lady Gaga said:

"If you don't have shadows, you're not standing in the light"

Through the years I've forgotten all the traumatic things that have happened in our lives, all of your failures as a father and all of the times I cried or couldn't cry from being so numb. Now, all I see is a man that I love unconditionally, a man I'm related to, a man that's just like me. A man who is me. 

I love you daddy.