To Happiness

My wonderful grandfather, Charles A. Armstrong, passed away on Saturday at 4:40 a.m. in Kauai. I was blessed to be able to be with him the last ten days of his life, as I left on Friday afternoon to return home. Our good-bye has been playing over and over in my head since I left. He was so weak and had barely spoken any words for the better part of my time there. When I went to say good-bye, he lifted his arm to hug me and told me he loved me in the sweetest, truest voice. Its hard not to hop on a plane and get back to my grandma and parents. They are all in my heart.

My grandpa was such a powerful, loving presence. He held my grandma on a pedestal (rightfully so!) and showed his family nothing but love and acceptance. He was smart man but more than that, he was a true artist.

Their neighbors are a Hindu monastery and temple. The guru who founded this monastery searched all over the world to find where to put this temple and found the foothills of Mount Waialeale on Kauai to be the perfect setting. My grandparents also searched high and low to find the right place to build their home and around the same time that the Hindu's began building their temple, my grandparents began building their home, about a 1/4 of a mile away. I could go on about the amazing hand carved temple, but what I also keep coming back to is how my grandpa found such a powerful place to live. The energy and beauty there is quite something. I was able to visit the temple when I was there and one of the monks talked about how the guru encouraged all monks to do something creative with their hands in addition to their studies. It struck me as I having been working on getting back into some art of my own and then I thought about my grandpa and his woodworking. He made us wooden toys (that my boys still play with) along with many other wonderful things. Most recently he became a master of the lathe, turning bowls to perfection.

My grandpa loved to see you smile and believed deeply in the power of positive thinking. We enjoyed many wonderful times together and special meals together as a family. At nearly all of these, he would raise his glass and toast "To Happiness."

To my Grandpa, to Happiness!