Hi Girls,

Just today, I ran across a copy of a letter I'd written in August of 1995 soon after we'd moved here to Tucson. It was one of the hottest summers on record for this area. I thought you might enjoy a few paragraphs from it.

The felt tip drawing of a saguaro cactus above, was a doodle that I'd made down near my signature on the letter.

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Imagine waking up in a place where the contrast between life and death is a stark, everyday reality, where daytime temperatures can soar above 120°, where it seems everything can prick, scratch, or poison you. Imagine living in a place where even the plants have names like shin-dagger agave, cat's claw, devil's claw, and the jumping cholla cactus is so-named because it seems to jump right off the bush onto you.

This is a land where the insects have names like assassin bug, and there are more than 20 kinds of scorpion (one, deadly), to say nothing of black widow and brown recluse spiders. We have 8 varieties of rattlesnake, coral snakes, and the Gila Monster, one of only two poisonous lizards in the world, lives here. In our neighborhood, even the street names such as, Thornberry, Thornapple, and Silverthorn, sound inhospitable. Welcome to Tucson! Welcome to the Sonoran Desert!

On the other hand, the Sonoran Desert is filled with life. Morning, noon, and evening, we watch coveys of Gambel quail with their distinctive topknots compete with mourning doves, rosy finches, and pyrrhuloxia to get their share of the scattered bird seed in our yard. It's difficult to step out any of our doors without seeing cottontails or huge jackrabbits scurrying away throught the cactus and mesquite. Our near neighbors also include several varieties of hummingbirds, horned toads, coyotes, and deer.

Right up from the desert floor rise lush "sky islands," biologically diverse mountain tops isolated from one another by vast expanses of desert. On some of them you can drive from "Mexico to Canada" in an hour--from the cactus of the desert floor to firs, spruces, and aspens at 10,000 feet, the home of bears, elk, squirrels, and mountain sheep.

Hi Girls,

Here's a pic that I thought you would all enjoy. I'm not a good judge of age in young children, but I suspect this had to have been taken in 1952 or 1953. I'm on the backsteps of a home (my parents'?, grandparents'?) in southern AR.

I am trusting and praying all's well with you all.

Dad

Here is my REAL legacy--my three incredible, beautiful, and beloved daughters--Camille, Carissa, and Christina. They are the most important part of me and my life going into the future.

On the left is Camille. By the age of 13, she'd won a statewide piano competition (against older and more experienced players) in Arkansas. At 16, she traveled with a teen team across India to lay the foundation for an orphanage dormitory outside Vijayawada, and they did it the old-fashioned way--with only hand tools. It was a trip filled with a great deal of physical and emotional hardship, including the death of a team member as they traveled across the sub-continent by train.

Camille graduated from the Eastman School of Music in vocal performance and music education in the spring of 2004. In August of that year, she was married to a classical trumpet player. She and her husband currently live in Bremen, Germany where they both continue to study, and he has a job with the orchestra.

(So far, my favorites of her performances have been as Maria from West Side Story and as Mabel, the love interest in Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance).

Carissa, my middle daughter, is on the far right. She is also an accomplished pianist. (Both she and Camille taught piano to a stable of students as the sole apprentice under Dr. June Chow-Tyne for their after school jobs in high school). Carissa was also an award winning member of a high school academic decathalon team that ranked in the top 20 teams in the nation.

In her Senior year in a 3,000 member high school, she was designated a National Merit Scholar--a nationwide honor based on academic achievement. Carissa is currently a Junior at Wheaton College in the Chicago area.

Christina (in the middle) is my youngest. Christina's my Tigger. All three of my daughters are spunky young women, but I think Christina got a double portion.

In August, she started her Senior year of high school--just less than 6 weeks after having two spinal surgeries in June--one, quite extensive. I believe in some ways, Christina's the most competitive of the three. It isn't yet apparent where her drive will take her, but she will undoubtedly follow her own path when she finds it with verve and ambition.

The most amazing thing about Christina is her personal courage in the face of adversity. In the past four years, she's had 5 spinal surgeries. All have been painful, and some recoveries have been very difficult. Through it all, she's never really complained nor asked why this was happening to her. I'm humbled by her spirit.

So... This is the space where I intend to write down some of the thoughts and principles that have been important to me through my life--and which have given comfort and guidance in times of trouble.

It's also where I will probably write down incidents and reminisces from my life... and from theirs--the personal memories and perspectives that I want to preserve for them.

They are MY legacy, but this is my legacy to THEM.

LEGACY

As the first installment of my legacy to you, my daughters, I leave you two simple thoughts.

The first is a simple bit of doggerel by Robert Louis Stevenson:

Life is so filled with a number of things,
I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings.

That short verse has served as a motto for me--in fact, I think I was living my life that way from nearly my earliest childhood. I was always curious, and as you all know, I still am!

It's funny, though, I always remembered the poem slightly wrong, but I like my version even better than Stevenson's original. :-)

Life is so filled with wonderful things,
I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings.

The second thought I want to leave with you in this first installment of my legacy to you is the verse from the Bible that has come back to me over and over and over in the last 7 years. You girls know what all's gone on. I can only tell you that God has sustained me throughout that time... and for many years earlier too--both in the sense of his presence and in the friendship and care of his people.

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer.
Romans 12:12

There are many other good--and important--thoughts all round those verses, and I'm tempted to put them in with this passage too, but I decided against it because these three thoughts were central and persistent encouragement through many very very dark times.

And with that thought, I will close this post. In days to come, I intend to add other things to the legacy I wish to leave you. I love the three of you very, very much.

Dad