A Birthday Wish
We recently celebrated our daughter’s birthday… again. It feels like I light the candles on that family tradition birthday cake every few weeks rather than years.
Aside from those years when I was an ambitious teen managing my small town paper route monopoly, fatherhood feels like it’s been a fixture in my life for my entire life. With everyone now grown, my position, as a father is certainly different than it once was. The love and dedication I have for our children has never wavered. Those emotions however, much like our children and myself, have all matured. Adjusting from so many years of dedicated full time parenting to an occasional visit a few times a year has certainly taken some getting use to. I get better at it every day.
From the time I was a child myself, I’ve always been an avid collector of music. With this new level of parenting, I’m now able to listen to quite a few more albums in their entirety than I was able to find time for over the past three decades. My dogs and I also spend more quality time together than we once did. They love it and so do I. Luckily for me, the pups are also music aficionados. It’s a double win for each of us.
Perhaps there was a day or two during my endless years of parenting that wasn’t quite perfect. The whole parenting thing is so judgmental. It doesn’t come with a manual or even a report card, but I’m convinced that I did a better than average job as Daddy. What I do know for sure, is that every moment of it came from the heart.
Before you know it, we’ll be celebrating another birthday year with that same cake recipe and lighting a few more candles. Before that time though, the pups and I have enough time to listen to a few more records. Life, like a song, is beyond that good.