STOP
The father looks over at his daughter, who is hard at work. He asks her what she is doing, while already knowing the answer. She says, "I'm doing something for you, Dad." She grins. He smiles back, but with a twinge of sadness in the creases of his smiling eyes. He gently places his hands on top of hers, stilling her movements with a firmness that belied his quiet ways. She always wondered how he could do that. How can anyone be as gentle as a snowflake and as unyielding as a mountain of stone? He was both a fuzzy, cuddly teddy bear and a fierce, powerful, towering grizzly simultaneously. In his presence, she felt both tenderly loved and fearfully small. He held her hands and turned her to face him. He asked quietly, "Did I ask you to do that?" She looked at him in bewilderment. "What do you mean?" He smiled and said, "Did you decide to do that, or did I ask you to do that?" Now, she was thoroughly confused. "I'm not sure.&qu