My Life Changed

There are so many themes that I can write about today that I am almost at a loss for words, today is my daughters birthday, I have the day off from my primary source of income and I have had an excellent week since we last spoke. I have watched my family play and grow in ways that fills me with a source of pride and happiness that most fathers and husbands feel in those fleeting moments of perfection that have become so rare in this day and age of lightspeed communication, errands and chores.

Fall is here and so begins my busy season of work. There are old exhibits to be torn down only to be replaced with the new. We have Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and then the ever so popular New Years Eve festivities on the horizon for us all to enjoy, fret, and stress over. Ahh, good times indeed.

Sidetracked. I seem to have started to think about all that needs to be done instead of focusing on what it is I am here to do. Relax, enjoy and write this message to you all.

So, today instead of sitting on my front porch swing and pounding away on my keyboard, I have decided to take a journey to one of the last peaceful bastions of intelligent conversation, quiet introspective thought and excellent company. I am at Emerson’s in Norfolk, Virginia, sitting in a leather chair and enjoying a great cigar. No 65 degree cool weather and soft Autumnal breeze with singing birds for me today, I have traded it all for polished wood, soft aromas and pleasant conversation. And it seems to be working, this little experiment of mine. I am enjoying myself in a way I don’t normally get to.

This past Monday, Labor Day, my offspring and her friend took it upon themselves to use the long forgotten, dust covered sidewalk chalk that had been sitting lonely in the corner of a room somewhere and tattooed the sidewalk in front of our home. I sat on the porch swing in awe at the artwork that came from them with a grace and ease of well practiced artists of a forgotten time. Manet, Van Gogh, Monet and Cezzane could not have done a better job. I know I sat there staring at them with a look of amazed gratification on my face.

I remember the day my daughter was born and the look of wide eyed wonder on her face as the nurse handed her to me all swaddled up in a white receiving blanket with pale blue and pink stripes. I can only imagine that the look on my face was just as amazed. I have been told that I started to talk to her then and did not stop talking to her until my Father-in-Law took her out of my arms. Then, he started to speak to her with the same fascination and wonder that I had been doing just a moment before. Our wives forgotten, the sterility of the room forgotten, our focus was strictly on the future of our family. The future, the hope and the joy all wrapped up in a 6 pound 8 ounce package that just stared at us with a look of wonderment at the surroundings she was now in.

From that day to this moment, 11 years later, my daughter still brings with her wherever she goes a peace and happiness that seems to rub off on whoever is around her like a virus of tranquility. I hope that never changes.

Happy Birthday Goose.