Another person quoted this week the bumper sticker, “If I had known grandkids were so great, I would have had them first.”  I used to disagree with that statement, and now that I have five wonderful grandchildren and another on the way, I still disagree.  Don’t get me wrong, I love them to pieces, but I have yet to find a role as rewarding, enjoyable and meaningful as being a dad.

At a presentation this week for the American Business Women’s Association San Jacinto chapter, we finished a bit early so I had the opportunity to read the last chapter of my book Daddin’:  The Verb of Being a Dad.  The last chapter is titled “Livin’” and it is primarily a love letter written to my first grandchild.  She had not yet been born at the time I sent the book to the publisher in 2010, but the first copy arrived 48 hours before her birth.  Her dad, my oldest son, received the book in the waiting room at the hospital.  Reading the chapter for the umpteenth time still had me choking up.

In the letter, I introduced her to her dad and uncles and described the type of men they are as evidenced in the various stories in the book. The letter also reminds her to be the woman she wants to be, but first enjoy being a child, and I reminded her that her dad and uncles will love and support her, as will I.  And I choked.  Decades flashed before my eyes, both into the future and returning to the past … the knot swelled in my throat.  My audience comprised mostly of early Boomer era attendees understood.

My dad died 35 years ago; I won’t be here that many more years forward from now.  And that’s okay.  It’s called livin’.

The book is about moments.  The moments of now.  Enjoy them, relish them, try to remember some of them. They are all good, even if they are not all pleasant.  Such is life and livin’.

Father’s Day 2017, and every day:  enjoy the moments with kids, grandkids … everyone.  It is part of livin’.

(Dedicated to my dad, my sons and their children, my beloved grandkids. … making memories day after day and relishing memories of the past.)