what could be

Yesterday was the day my dad was born. He's been gone for years now, but I still miss him terribly. He wasn't perfect, my dad, but he embodied possibility. There was no "I can't" in my dad; there was only "let's try" and "we'll see."

A dream could be one or a million steps away from real life, but either way, it was worth a shot. So what if it ended in a pile of failed attempts? We were no worse off for trying and, no doubt, learned something new along the way.

I hope to instill possibility in my kids, the way my dad instilled it in me. I pray they will (sometimes) ignore my warnings of what will be and embrace what could be instead.

sounds like a super hero

Last night I went in to say goodnight to Max. As a pleasant surprise, I didn't step on or kick a single thing on my way across the 4 feet to his bed. I mentioned this to Max and he said, "Yeah, Dad helped me clean my room. He hung up my clothes while I talked about school. We worked some some stuff out."

Despite the fact that Max did little to help clean his own room, this story makes me happy. Imagine a dad who has time to tuck in a boy, hang up his clothes and solve his social problems all in one night. Sounds like a super hero to me!