The Layered Daughter

Just giving you a glimpse into my challenge today's topic focuses on my all time second love...Family & Friends

Some may think that the two do not or rather should not go hand in hand but they do for me everyday. I come from a good old regular family. I've had the pleasure and privilege to have both my mom and dad together and brothers and sisters to help guide me along the way. In addition to my wonderful family, I have been able to acquire wonderful people that I can call friends! However, for this post I want to focus on my dad, my Abba, the man that makes up half of my chromosomes. 

So the original AP is a very complicated man. He is a lover, father, brother, a community activist and very very smart man. He is a man that ALWAYS pushes you to higher heights. Never settle...always try hard, put your best foot forward kind of man. Now don't get this twisted, this man is not without his flaws BUT he has proven that with hard work and steadfast beliefs you can make amazing children. So in focusing on one of the #1 men in my life, I captured a great picture the other day that only seems fitting. 

*captured 9/2010 Upstate NY 

To the untrained eye...yes its just a flower but it represents so much more to me. I see this rose in a vase and notice that there are layers upon layers upon layers. Now not to sound cliche, I sat for almost FIVE WHOLE MINS staring at this flower. In doing that of course my significant other who we will name Carmichael came over and stopped my gaze. However, upon leaving this function I had to stop and take a picture. 

So as any lover of a craft I ran over to my dad and showed him the picture from the day and the only question that man had was...

"Why did you choose this as the one picture you took today?"

I know some of you may be thinking "why is he being so obtuse?" but really my dad is just like this flower. A great site (loving father, dedicated community activist) but as I have had the privilege to learn he is FULL of layers. He didnt want to just accept that this was a pretty bloom caught at the EXACT moment; but rather he wanted to understand what in my psyche made me choose such a thing. 

On that day, I realized that there are more things in me that I got from my dad than I knew. We ended up sitting at the dining room table (a usual conference place for all "serious" talks) and discussing the ins and outs of life and how the flower represents that for me. And when we were done all my dad had to say was "You are a f*cked up person....just like your dad."*

Overall Lesson: We, the children, are EXACT replicas of our parents (whether mother or father). What I have learned about myself through getting to know my dad in these past years is that we are not afraid to ask the hard questions. And now more than ever I find myself being gravitated to the people who push me the edge more than ever.

So I think I will end this post with a couple thank yous.

Thank you to...

1) My parents for showing me their imperfections and teaching me how to improve upon those

2) My friends...you know most days I hear "You are such a good friend" but really Im only as good as the people who are around me. You all push me to higher heights than I ever thought I could reach. 

So until next time...I promise to keep snapping photos and craving for something else.

Apricots & Mangos,

A Girl & Her Camera

*{Sidenote: There are two everyday languages that the P. family speaks: English and CUSS! We cuss A LOT; but never out of spite just as a way to stress importance. You will see a great deal of that in this blog}