This Father’s Day is the first one in over a decade that I’ve spent with my father and it means the world to me to have him here.
We recently moved and things have not gone as smoothly as I would have liked. I have been a little overwhelmed the last few weeks, trying to pull it all together and everything came to a head last week.
In typical dad fashion, my father knew I needed help and jumped on a plane to lend a hand. He raised me to be very independent and, like him, I rarely (if ever) ask for help. I didn’t even realize I needed it until he said he was coming.
There is not much he can “do” while he’s here. It’s one of the reasons why I would not have thought to ask him to come. But being here is enough. I may very well be 40 years old, but sometimes, a girl needs her father.
As a woman and mother, I can’t speak to what it means to be a father. However, as a daughter, I can speak to what having my father in my life has meant to me.
It means…
- Holding back tears to prove you can take what life throws at you.
- Knowing you have a shoulder to cry on when you can’t.
- Calling for advice, sometimes because you need it and sometimes because he does.
- Taking the advice you didn’t ask for, knowing he taught you to decide for yourself how and when to use it.
- Listening to the same stories you have heard your entire life repeated over and over.
- Loving it because you know some day, he won’t be there to tell you the stories anymore.
- Having a friend, mentor and guide that’s available any time, day or night.
- Having someone that knows better than you do when that time has come.
- Learning something new with every visit, because there is no end to the teachable moments.
- Striving to teach him something new so you can do it together.
- Being a competitive spirit.
- Knowing that he is proud when you win, though he’ll always make you work for it.
- Working hard to be successful and prove that you are your father’s daughter.
- Realizing along the way that it’s not your success that makes him proud of you.
- Being loved through every success and failure, milestone and minor moment.
- Sitting through those minor moments you really don’t enjoy, simply for the joy of being together.
Happy Father’s Day to all the dad’s out there and thank you for all that you do!
