What a way to start blogging, maybe my last - its my first. I was lucky to have a bunch of "dads" in my time. Just a few would include - my spiritual "fathers" and leaders, I got my "daddy".. dad who raised me from a kid (Harrington Jack), I got Monty.. my biological dad - who was my first guitar teacher, always encouraged my faith (like all others I regard in that space). Monty left the shell we all live in, that we know as our "body". He has gone back to the powerful being, the original "alien".. the one who placed us here. He has gone back to God~
Tomorrow his "body" will be laid to rest, in my "homeland" in Trinidad. I will not be there in person, I obviously would liked to have been there. I have peace so no pity or for those who concern me in that. I have a fair sense of priorities and for those closest people in my life - where I am supposed to be and where I would like to be. I have resolved the two. I will be in Toronto with my confidante - my wife. I will be here, with my two year old boy - who for whatever reason on earth would not leave my side for the last four days now. What does that young spirit know and respond to? He would not let me go :)
Monty played his part in my life with sincerity and heart. He supported in all the ways I believe he could. I have fond memories of him, my brother Andre and I. Memories of spending a couple summer vacations with him, his car skidding by that natural spring - taking us to Maracas (beach). Great times with some Lester Lewis gospel music or Integrity Hosanna Worship, waking up to that in the morning and some toast, paw paw.. good times. Lots of instruments for me to play, music scores and books from his personal archive.. good times. He was an earnest parent, trying to do the best he could to give his kids all he was able to.
He was a truly studious person, one of his theses focused on Bob Marley, showing a musical but Caribbean perspective. Over the years there was so much of material around him . As he got older, his focus on study and on secular music matured into more faith-based content. I even think he cooled a bit on music all together. He was changing. I guess the world grows strangely dim - I like to think that - something else was getting brighter while others faded into their place.
He was not a passive student of the bible, his were well underlined as he cross-referenced against other books. Of his faith, I like to think of him more of a charismatic than catholic (as I was) because he loved sincere and good worship music. I do not think he depended on another person or a corporate context to be the foundation of his faith. He followed Martin Luther.. sought God for himself, took personal responsibility to do it. In me I put to him one of many that formed an informal community of faith around him.
His was on his own pursuit of God and we had more than a few engaging talks about faith and what I learnt about becoming a follower of Christ. That will never fit into any religion and so we could talk on a broader platform without the decisiveness of religion.
My God is sovereign - it was HE that choose all the details of the frame of my life and I am engaging a process of maturity to fill that frame with things he chooses and I try to learn when I stumble. As we say - in the mens group I belong to (hebron).. the stumble is the lie and the word said we are destined for perfection in Christ, in our finishing. Until then.. like my brother Monty, I work with all I have been blessed with, I walk according to the measure and understanding I cannot deny. Walk until whichever end comes first. My spiritual community is resolute on doing everything we can to finish the work and bring Christ back.
Thanks for reading, I look to the finish and remain thankful for an amazing wife and we already have our little son. Thankful for a great family that started with some parents, some sisters and brothers. I am a part of a global spiritual hurricane called the congress that started in the backside of the desert or the hidden valley where David tended sheep - in the little islands called Trinidad and Tobago.
Its like Galilee there.. lol global tremors start there. Will always be part of my home.. in this body I occupy. Thanks for helping me to seize and get to this place Monty. Lets see whats next in the journey - he's already transitioned into another phase of it. We all have our journey, the most important one, is the one of faith. At the end of life that is all we're left with - it crosses dimensions.
~May God be praised - because he is great in everything he does, he is worthy of our admiration as the maker is worthy of the love and worship of what only he actually created.
This is the only tribute in memory, I thought - I started exploring this tool
.. so I'd steemit and spread the idea a little too in tribute. Anton, Andre and Ted - charting our coarse