On Groundhog day the four legged creature came out of its cave, yawned, and stayed out. Just to annoy us really, because Spring, Ladies and gents, is nowhere is sight. Yet, I started to feel this intense urge to organize and purge. Am I nesting like the birds in our yard?

A thing I’ve always avoided organizing or touching before was my beloved collection of chachkies. It ranges from a pearl that came off an earring, to tiny wooden sculpture I made years ago, to …. oh Lord, I don’t even know why I’m keeping all of this! And included in the do not touch pile are some big manila envelopes. full of drawings. Drawings even from my kindergarten!

Rummaging through these envelopes I found a little treasure. I found a piece of acetate sheet that I used for dry point etching about 20 odd years ago. It is an etching of my dad. I remember taking a photo for it on a sunny day in our garden. I even remember using our old Canon, the one that still had a film roll! I remember trying to make some prints of it, but none of them came out the way I wanted. I just ended up keeping the acetate sheet.

It is strange to be looking at a piece of transparent sheet that has my dad’s image. It is strange to hold it in my hands, and than to hold it in my arms. Because right now, I have no other way of getting close to him. My dad, the one whose hand I held while learning to walk, who imprinted his ethics and moral stance in me. The one who taught me to be a dreamer, a romantic at heart.

Dad, this song is for you.