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Kick Back, Daddy-O
It’s been a crazy week and I am thoroughly beat. Sadly, there’s no rest for the weary in sight. Plenty to do and the clock’s ticking, 🍕 dude 🐢.
Thank You For Enough
He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough. ~Lao Tzu
Well, it’s Father’s Day weekend and while you may think your dad earned his World’s Best Dad paraphernalia, I beg you to put it away because mine is definitely the best dad anyone has ever had.
He worked hard to ensure that we always had enough. Who could possibly ask for more than that?
He did not work so hard that we didn’t get to know him. He was home for supper and the evening shows. He was home for the weekends whenever we weren’t packing into an RV of some kind.
Sometimes it was straight-out vacation. Sometimes it was just a weekend with friends at a local campground.
It wasn’t excessive. We weren’t jet-setters. We weren’t bouncing between Monaco and Vale, Colorado.
We just had enough to get us away from the same old, same old. Sometimes it was some place local. Sometimes it got as exotic as Lancaster County or even New Jersey.
The important thing was that it was fun.
Dad always made sure we had fun.
Who can ask for more than that?
I love my dad and I humbly nominate him for 🏆 World’s Best Dad 🏆 any day of the week.
Old Softy
Dads React to Try Not To Cry Challenge (Father’s Day 2021)
Despite the stereotypical image of dads being the stoic, hardworking bastions of the household, to be a dad is truly to be a blubbering basket case.
We put on a brave face but, to be perfectly honest, we get verklempt on a fairly regular basis.
The birth of our children, their first steps, their stages of development, it all brings out the 😭 waterworks.
Of course, I had more reason to cry than most.
At the births of Emmeline and Connor, there was biting. Very hard, painful biting. As much as the first glimpse of their beautiful faces got me all misty-eyed. The jaw strength of my lovely wife is not to be lightly dismissed.
When Emmeline was first learning to walk, it was in the hellish depths of summer. I was shirtless. Emmeline was cruising confidently from one piece of furniture to another. When she was passing by, she managed to get a handful of my chest hair and her other hand found it’s way to my shaggy armpit. That’s when her knees gave way. Suddenly, my little bundle of joy was hanging from my body hair. D’oh!
I wouldn’t trade those memories for anything. Most of the tears are tears of joy for the absolute miracle that my children are in my life.
Something Out Of Nothing
Art is making something out of nothing and selling it. ~Frank Zappa
Another of the genuine joys of my life is that I get to do exactly that. As a computer programmer, I literally make something from nothing.
It seriously wasn’t there a moment ago. I peck the keys furiously and waggle the mouse a bit. Boom! Absolute wizardry.
On the writing front, I’ve written millions of words since I first started pecking away on my electric typewriter back in high school.
On the publishing front, I’ve actually committed some of those words to salable commodities. Intellectual property that was spun from absolute nothingness.
Ideas became words. Words became scenes. Scenes became chapters. Chapters became books.
Having actually done that, I know I can do more and have set up a publishing company to host the worlds I’ve made.
Problem is, the programming takes a lot out of me. By the time it’s time to write, I’m absolutely slammed.
Fortunately, I have a variety of resources to keep me on track. Local writer’s groups like the Black Diamond Writer’s Network here in Schuylkill County and the Greater Lehigh Valley Writer’s Group provide me a lot of positive feedback.
There are tons of resources on YouTube to discuss every aspect of writing, editing and publishing. Each of these tend to branch out to their favorite resources such as Plottr, ProWritingAid, Fictionary and Reedsy.
It can turn into a bit of a rabbit hole, but sometimes rabbit holes need to be traversed. Creative endeavors, whether programming, writing or the kinds of DIY home renovations that Kelly has made recently, all require equal parts of focused action and scattered conceptualizing.
We’re not machines, people. We have lives. We have diseases that give us brain fog, putting everything way behind schedule.
The important thing is to let the scattered conceptualizing coalesce into the means of taking focused action.
I do that from time to time, but it makes me so very tired. What are ya gonna do?
I create between naps. Sometimes the naps are longer than the creativity. Sometimes I get in the groove and the naps go by the wayside.
You just have to take it how it comes and be thankful for enough.
There’s another item ticked off of the to-do list and zillions more to go. I hope you’re getting some R&R this weekend.