A Father's Lesson

For five years now, I have had the best daughter in the world. My world, her world.

For a long time I was sure, positive, that I had little to teach. I didn't know where to begin. I was tied up and wrung around, wrapped up in working hard.

I went through the motions.

One day, I found myself wandering down paths of thought. Thoughts about fatherhood, about how my daughter saw the world. About what I could do, what I thought best to learn.

Really, what I fell on wasn't what I expected.

I found what I should have learned. What I could improve on, and through learning it better, I could teach my daughter.

Here are the Three Lessons I began to teach.

#1 Pay Attention
We truly learn, only what we pay attention to. In any moment there are inifite things to pay attention to, but what you are doing. How you are doing it, and what you are paying attention to. Attention is a thing, it is given and when forced, is latent with disdain. What we give our attention to, is what we give our time and our life to. This rule is an idea to heed where attention goes.

#2 Be Afraid and Do It Anyway
This is so simple, yet incredibly difficult. To first pay attention to your fear, so that when seen, can be worked through. Because, fear, is one heck of a fighter. It will rear and flail in an instant. Or it can creep in slow. We react either out of fear or not. I was always afraid to voice up, to speak out and be heard. To find a practice that could lead beyond these would be to do whatever it is inspite of the fear.
Naturally, a want of recognizing when to apply this is important. (I wouldn't want her trying to fly off the porch telling herself to be afraid and do it anyway.) So real understanding of rule #1 plus common sense of self-protection is inherently needed.

#3 Do It With All Your Might
To be able to look back at whatever it was, and say 'I did the BEST I could'. No matter the thing, go all the way, swing for the fences.

We have one life, live.

We are both still working with these rules, every day, and I have found that it has helps to foster a growing relationship of understanding between us.

I would love to hear thoughts and ideas, what are your rules? What would you use instead?

#writerofage