In recent years, I took a blog vacation the last few weeks of each year. That was important to get a break and refresh creatively for the New Year.
If you noticed, the blog vacation started a month early in 2016, starting suddenly in mid-November.
The reason is my dad, Bernie Brown, passed away unexpectedly on November 19, 2016.
Typing that last sentence stops me in my tracks.
While intellectually, I know my dad died, I have been so steeped in processing the impact of his passing on my life, it has been tough to focus beyond only the most essential things in front of me.
Weeks later, I am still coming to grips with my dad’s death. That is likely why I have not written anything about it here yet.
If you follow me on Facebook, you might have seen updates the week he died featuring the hashtag #SurroundedByLove. I used the hashtag to represent the tremendous outpouring of concern, affection, and love people shared in the week between my dad's death and the funeral.
For those of you who are blog readers, but are not as deep in what's going on in my personal life, here are a few previous Brainzooming posts about my dad:
- My Dad and The Numbers Approach to Sales
- 6 Personal Relationship Lessons from My Parents’ 60-Year Marriage
- Father’s Day – From Aligning Your Life’s Work
- Father’s Day and Some Parental Advice You Should Heed
If you would like a deeper sense of this incredible man, and how his world view shapes what you see on this blog, here's a video of the eulogy I delivered at his funeral. The audio is not great in the church. If you are interested, a pretty close transcript of my remarks is at this link.
As comfortable, as I am in where our relationship was, I miss him tremendously and am trying to fill the big hole he left in my family. So if the blogs don’t come rushing back like they did previously, you know the reason. – Mike Brown
