In her first two-plus years of life, my daughter Lucy has only been sick a few times. For that, Kim and I count our blessings, as there is nothing more miserable and sad and pathetic than a sick little kid. In those times when she is suffering, I’d happily take on her sickness and carry it myself if given the chance. Even if it meant that whatever affliction would be ten times worse and last ten times longer. I’d do it. In a heartbeat. I know parents who have lost children to cancer and diabetes, and I know they'd agree with me. They would've given anything for the chance to trade …
Faith
Want Peace? Seek Wisdom
Here's a simple litmus test to see if the junk you're dealing with is, in fact, Adultitis: "When I'm with my family I'm thinking about work, and when I'm at work I'm thinking about my family." Is this you? …
Disney World Believe It…Or Not.
I was in Disney World a few weeks ago, standing in line for a ride with Kim and Lucy. We were in Clearwater for a speaking program, and decided to take a day to drive over to Orlando to visit “Snow White’s House.” Fortunately, Snow was home, and was generous enough to take photos with Lucy. I marveled at how much more three-dimensional she looks in person. And so I was in line, holding Lucy, who was holding a stuffed Snow White doll, when a familiar word caught my ear. …
Learning How to Scuba. Metaphorically Speaking.
Over the years, I’ve had to rely on my faith quite a bit. I blame starting a business for that. There were late nights when I wondered if I was a crazy fool, wasting time and money on a venture that would never pan out. I questioned the sanity of my friends and family, the ones who supported me even when my ship seemed to be sinking like a rock. …
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How to Avoid the Dark Side of Metamorphosis
Have you ever gone through a major metamorphosis? Are you in the middle of one right now? Metamorphosis was the "word of the week" on Sesame Street this week. [Side note: I love how Sesame Street talks UP to kids, challenging them to not only say a five syllable word, but also to understand the meaning. Very cool!] As Elmo explained to Abby in his screechy, glass-shattering voice, "It's a B--I--G change!" Tadpoles transforming into frogs and caterpillars turning into a butterflies were given as examples. As I heard this theme echoed over and over throughout the episode, I couldn't …
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How to Create Heavenly Moments In The Here and Now
What's heaven like? I'm sure you asked this of your elders when you were a "little," but have you asked it recently? What do YOU think heaven is like? I absolutely adore my mom's answer to my inquiry when I was five years old. I'll never forget the conversation. She was pushing me on the swing of our trusty backyard swing set. (Boy, being the youngest, that thing had seen some love by the time I came along.) By age five I was a swinging fool. I spent a large fraction of my childhood examining clouds and dreaming on that swaying piece of plastic. The conversation went something like …
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Happy Father’s Day, God
Have you heard the story about the married couple photographed together at Disney World 15 years before they met? (I found out about it from a link Chris Brogan shared via Twitter.) The couple didn’t know each other, and they didn’t even live in the same country at the time the photograph was taken: That fateful realization came just one week before their wedding eight years ago. Alex and Donna had been going through old family snapshots. There, in the blurry background of a picture of 5-year-old Donna was 3-year-old Alex being pushed down Main Street at the same moment in 1980 by his father. …
Free Will and The Pizza Parlor
Once upon a time, there was a little girl. With her birthday just days away, her parents announced that as part of her gift, she could pick any restaurant she wanted to go to for dinner. She debated and deliberated. She hemmed and hawed. She asked her mom where shethought she should go. She asked her dad, too, but neither offered an answer. It was up to her, they said. The little girl really wanted to go to Luigi’s, the pizza parlor downtown. She quite fancied the old brick walls and the smell of the wood burning stove. And watching the thick-forearmed men shape the dough and toss it into …
Lessons from a Screaming Teether
Last night, Lucy screamed and cried for 90 minutes straight. Jason and I are convinced that every baby has a "thing." We escaped colic, gassiness, and sleeping problems, but teething has proven to be Lucy's archnemesis. Those 90 minutes last night definitely ranked up there as some of the worst minutes of my life. Screaming "mama" over and over again, Lucy was in pain and she wanted me to take the pain away. I tried everything... Walking her around the house. (Check.) Singing. (Check.) Talking softly. (Check.) Tylenol. (Check.) Playing her favorite song on the iPod. …
Life’s Little Traffic Jams
[This post originally appeared on Dad-O-Matic, a cool site for Dads, by Dads.] We bought our daughter one of those little primary-colored push car toys for her first birthday. It gets great gas mileage and holds up amazingly well in crashes, of which there have been many so far. The other day, she got herself caught in a traffic jam. The legs of our counter-height kitchen table and its accompanying chairs gridlocked her into a standstill. With all the might a one-year-old can muster, she pushed and prodded that car in an attempt to break free to the open road. To no avail. …