Just in case you ever thought our family was normal … a few of us posed for this picture.

Secret #1: Nobody can define normal anyway, so relax.

When I wrote the novel Rose Hill Cottage, I included an awkward scene at a card display where one character asks another if she sent her father a card for Father’s Day. Instead of just saying, “no,” the girl says, “My dad died.”

Man, aren’t you glad you’ve never asked a dumb question like that? Right. Me either. When I wrote the book, I didn’t know that I would become the second character so soon. After rushing to the store at the last minute on the third Saturday in June for more than forty years, I suddenly find myself with no one on the receiving end of a Father’s Day card. My father-in-law died several years ago and my father just last summer.

The world feels strange without them.

You might be in the same position. Or maybe you are the single dad of children who aren’t actually old enough to get the point that you deserve to be celebrated next Sunday. (And every minute of every day. A round of applause for single parents, please.)

Maybe your dad is a jerk. Or you never knew him. Or he is emotionally absent, and you’ve never been able to connect. Whatever your form of abnormal is, please find a way to celebrate this weekend, because …

Secret #2: We all live some version of bizzaro family life. (So, we might as well enjoy ourselves.)

Try these ideas:

Celebrate Someone: A favorite uncle, the neighbor who shovels your walk, your pastor, your boss (if that isn’t weird), the basketball coach who taught your son to make free-throws and to stop throwing fits when he got called on a foul. Send one of those people a card of thanks.

Invest in Someone: Find a young man in your life and invest in his future. Buy him a book. Take him to a movie and talk about it over pizza afterwards. Tell him a family story that connects him to a larger purpose. Ask about his dreams, and then put a few bucks in his college fund. Pray for him, and tell him that you’ll keep it up.

Remember Someone: Your father, your grandfather, your best friend’s dad, your elementary music teacher. Someone! Think of something you learned from that person. Give thanks. And then pass it on.