Happy Sunday Everyone:
I was going to start out today on a super light note about it being the single handed greatest day of the year besides my birthday….where Kim and the boys do everything I want to do, no questions asked. Then about 20 minutes ago I found out one of my best friends lost his dad this morning. He was able to hold his hand until his last breath, which is of course both beautiful and incredibly sad. You talk about the full circle of life, it’s truly amazing, and as I’m sitting here typing this “lean on me” starts playing on my Pandora station. LOVE IT, WOW!
It’s not hard for me to celebrate Father’s day as a son. I have the best dad. He did everything for me. He put me in a position to succeed in life by simply watching him as an example. In almost every aspect of life, he showed me the way. If I had to describe my dad in one word bringing all the other positive words together, the single word is honorable. My dad is honorable. He’s also aged well. I think of him being a hard ass growing up and now telling me to relax with my own boys a bit. He’s not shutting down, he’s opening up. I think that’s important for all of us, especially as we age….are we shutting our brains and hearts down or are we open to the idea that we might not have everything figured out.
I was with a very good friend of mine yesterday, someone I admire and respect. Different than me, their dad wasn’t the greatest role model. I don’t want to show any disrespect so I’ll leave at that but we talked about how we both turned out, both overall pretty good. I made the comment “I turned out the way I did because of my dad, you turned out the way you did in spite of your dad”. If I could keep that question in my front pocket as I’m parenting “are the boys going to turn out in a good way because of me or in spite of me?”, I think I’d find myself more present and aware of the decisions I’m making and the comments I’m making. I think we could all take it a step further and ask that in life for anything; family, work, leadership, friendship….”are good things happening because of me or in spite of me?”
Happy Father’s Day to all you Fathers out there!!