Big Shoes

Kombanwa!


        It is the eve of my son's first birthday. I have come home from work, played with him, and I am watching him wander around the house independently with just one sock on his feet. I have tried to urgently keep him away from the oven while baking dinner. I can't help but be amazed though as I look at him playing with my shoes. They are over half the length of his body. I remember how long it took for me fit my own dad's shoes, and now I am in his position. The shoe is on the other foot.

       Thing s have changed a lot since those days. It is hard to comprehend everything that has happened since then. I have reflected on a few memories that stood out more recently. These are the things I want to honor and contribute to my own son's childhood experiences as I give my best at raising him to be a good man. This is the father I will always love and respect regardless of anything else that happened. Everyone makes mistakes big and small, but this is the highlight reel I want to post.

1. As a child I spent much of my time memorizing the populations of cities around the world as well as the local small towns. I did this from seven to eight years old. My dad would take me to the edge of different towns until we got to the green city limit signs that had the popultation listed just below the white bold letters of the town's name. We would do a u-turn then and come back home.

2. At about the same age, I wanted to be a herpetologist. I had a lizard, a turtle, and I caught a lot of toads and frogs. What I really wanted was a snake. We lived next to a corn field, and there was a long corn snake that lived near the wood pile in the back yard. My dad went back and caught with his hands, bringing it over Steve Irwin style. He put it inside of my rectangular, glass aquarium, where the unnamed snake spent its few moments of captivity beating its head against the transparent walls without ceasing. I looked at my dad and said, "I don't want a snake anymore." So my dad reached in and grabbed the hostile serpent, taking it back to the wood pile from whence it came.

3. My  father was the pilot of our many long-drive summer vacations. Whether it was a Highland Games festival in North Carolina, the Smoky Mountains, Galveston, Texas, Niagra Falls, or even Matamoros, Mexico once, he drove us the many miles to get us to see new places. The best example was going to Wisconsin Dells, where we decided it was too cold, so we turned araound and drove to the opposite end of the country at Perdido Key, Florida. It seemed that no adventure was too far away if it meant a good memory for the family.

      I want to encourage my son's thirst for knowledge. I want to enable him to embrace his passions. I want to take him on adventures he will remember for the rest of his life. My father did this for me. I will honor what he did for me by doing the same for my son. I will make my own mistakes along the way as well. However, I will leave him some footsteps worth following too. I just have to be careful not to step in any pits along the way. How does that song go?

"Lord, I want to be just like You because he wants to be just like me."

Que Dieu te benisse!