A happy Father's Day... and a thought...

First, I want to wish a warm and wonderful Father's Day to all you dads out there. If I could give the new ones (those that still have the shine on them) just a small piece of advice, cherish being a dad, drink it ALL in, don't miss a thing.

You may think the road is long, but I had one daughter graduate last week, and now my twins will do the same in less than a year and I swear I don't know where the time went, obviously I must have been in a coma because surely 18 years could not have past by this quickly.

Along with other changes in my life Father's Day will be different moving forward, not that it's a bad thing, but change can be scary.

And what I wouldn't give to have them come running into the room wearing their one piece footy pajamas just one more time.

Here is a "re-run" of a previous Father's Day post:

I was having lunch with my friend Bob, our ritual is lunch every Thursday and I always enjoy our conversations as Bob is thoughtful and insightful man.

When Bob talks, I listen.

At this one particular lunch I was telling Bob about my dad, who left when I was 6, and how it had been decades since I last saw him.

I told him that on my 40th birthday a card containing a letter arrived from my dad telling me of his regrets, that a lot of water had passed under the bridge, and that he would love to visit. Reading his words didn’t provoke any emotions, the anger of him leaving us had long since gone, but I didn’t feel the need for a reunion either. The letter went into a drawer and I never replied.

Bob asked why; I told him that “at this point in my life I didn’t feel the need for father”. He nodded and then thoughtfully responded, “ya, but maybe he has a need for a son”.

It was like I had just been struck by lighting. I got it.

I found out where my dad was living and made arrangements to go see him.

But he died before I got there.

Regrets don’t come from the things we do, sure there are some things we won’t do a second time, but we learn from them, there was a lesson in there for us.

The true regrets come from the things that we don’t do.

You too may be at a point in your life where you don’t feel the need for a father, but maybe you have a father who needs a son.

Something to think about.

Happy Fathers Day dad.

(me and my dad)