Fatherhood

To be a father means you have the ability to make your favorite sandwich and sit down to your favorite TV show, and just when you are ready to take your first bite and lose yourself in entertainment….. you stop, put it down, turn off the TV and change direction.

Its 5:00 am and I just spent an hour scrubbing the bathroom floor from my daughters stomack flu. Prior to that I was in bed with my son calming his deep cough. I will have to take off work tommorow to take them to the doctors and cancel meetings.

All for what?…. Happiness of course

Happiness Is

Knowing your new sneakers make you run faster
Humming while you eat
Watching TV upside down
Jumping and landing on your knees
Swimming under water in your bath tub
Not knowing if its breakfast, lunch or dinner time
Seeing life in all stuffed animals
Being a child

Re: Fatherhood

Michael you just keep blessing us… Neil Young has spoken wonderfully of the unique child-view in his song, I am a Child:

I am a child, I'll last a while.

You can't conceive

of the pleasure in my smile.

You hold my hand,

rough up my hair,

It's lots of fun

to have you there.



God gave to you,

now, you give to me,

I'd like to know

what you learned.

The sky is blue

and so is the sea.

What is the color,

when black is burned?

What is the color?



You are a man, you understand.

You pick me up

and you lay me down again.

You make the rules,

you say what's fair,

It's lots of fun

to have you there.



God gave to you,

now, you give to me,

I'd like to know

what you learned.

The sky is blue

and so is the sea.

What is the color,

when black is burned?

What is the color?



I am a child, I'll last a while.

You can't conceive

of the pleasure in my smile.

Re: Fatherhood

thanks Nicole:

I love that song but never really listened to the lyrics. Yes where do the children go?

Re: Fatherhood

My dear Michael, each of us carries every age of child, teen and adult within us like a nearly endless number of russian dolls… that image just came to me, seems to work… so the child remains but buried under many other selves.

the child peeks out to play and laugh or storm and rage or teach at the most unexpected moments - don't you see that in adults, sometimes especially those who are older and have reached the “second childhood”?

Love,

Nicole

Re: Fatherhood

I love what both of you have offered here.

Michael….. gorgeous poem.  I think that parenting is a sacred obligation and honoring that is a one of the more beautiful things I'll stumble across on occasion.  (just as dishonoring that will break my heart…. the honoring of it fills me with a hopeful joy!)

Thanks for adding to my joy!