This photo of my folks is fuzzy and out of focus.  I fear my memories are becoming the same and I do not want that.  I want to remember them; their love, their warmth, and their strength for as long as I have breath.  It is especially important so that I can pass that along to Maris.  She is their legacy and the living embodiment of my entire life.  I try to stay upbeat in my blogs but OH how I miss them!  I tell my little one stories about them every day to keep them alive for her.  This was taken when I was in the Miss Texas USA pageant in Padre Island and it was the very first time I had ever been anywhere outside of Dallas with my family.  I believe I was 24.  I discovered Mama’s love for the ocean and remember marveling at how my dark red father’s feet were impossibly white — a shocking reflection of his mixed heritage of German and Choctaw.  I would say we were all in our prime then.  It is before my parents had any health problems that surfaced and I weighed less than 110 pounds, eating whatever I wanted.  I lost to who would become Miss Universe and I ate her cheese danish every day for breakfast so I got two.  I only got to spend one night with them on that beach in Padre Island but I remember I saw them in a whole new light.  I have been so fortunate to travel since I have gotten married and it is terribly important that our daughter never become blasé about such a privilege.  The French novelist Marcel Proust once wrote:

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

I want to continually see the world and people with new eyes — always seeking out the best.