Go ahead. Splash
in the puddles. Remind me of the joy that can come with it.
Grace
the air with your laughter. Show me how to embrace the mundane and make it
something memorable.
This
surreal, sensory-overloaded world we live in occasionally stops. Every now and
then it screeches to a halt and I’m standing there watching in a little bit of
wonder.
If
only I could have this perspective more often.
Parenting
is for the patient, and I am absolutely and positively not.
If
only the creativity that comes so easily could be so evident in handling the pink
meltdowns of every day. Outnumbered, outguessed, and so outmanned in every
single way, my wife and I find ourselves daily at the end of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. The
only difference is that we’re too tired to make that one last break with guns
blazing.
Thank
God the rest of our lives are stable. Oh, wait a minute—I’m a writer.
But
wait is what you three tell me.
Look, Daddy, you say about the simple
things I overlook.
Over here, Daddy, you shout about the
ordinary places I never notice.
Stand still, Daddy, you scream as I have
to wait for you to count my age while the rain falls over my head.
It’s
never felt better.
Relief
is gentle. This respite, so generous. I take a snapshot and wish I could keep
this sort of attitude 24-7. God in His gentle and generous mercy has given us
these three characters worthy of three Pixar films. Only more beautiful and
complicated and original than any genius artist could ever create.
The
wonders of parenthood. So rich for a pauper to begin to try to have a budget
for.
Every
day I begin and end feeling unworthy. Yet every day, I begin and end feeling
loved.
The
afternoon rain shower sometimes breaks because of a tear in the grey sky. I
suddenly see these dazzling bursts of sunlight cutting through, splashing my
world with a lot more brightness than I deserve.
The
laughter is an echo of another me. The trio is a three-pronged attack on my
sanity and my self-control. Yet this youthful joy mirroring some forgotten part
of me is as welcomed as the rain on a dry, scorched lawn.
I
wish I could stand in the rain for forty-four seconds more often. Listening to
the countdown not out of fear but out of pure fun. Then running toward shelter not
because I have to but because of the response it will bring from those who love
me and laugh at me the most.
You
crazy three are my shelter.
Labels: Fatherhood, joy, Parenthood, The Girls
