twenty years ago father's day

 

i have this on my desk at work.  i look at it every time i'm in the office but on friday i picked it up & really looked at it.  the year on it is 2006.  nick must've been around 18 months old.  twenty years!  twenty short years feels like this father's day gift was made just last year.  & in those twenty years anna & i have watched nick grow into his own special, wonderful person.  a young man of remarkable abilities.  i say that as a biased father, no doubt.  but being a father to nick is the best thing ever.  in the early days of his life i'd write about him all the time.  i don't now.  because he can tell his own stories.  he is possessed of his own life created in a style of his choosing.  nick is twenty-one years old as i type.  already he has had great adventures of the kind that blow my socks off.  adventuring of the kind that are the subjects of books.  again, he is the author of his stories.  not me.  what i can do is provide love, kindness, & courage to nick in my own flawed style that might help nick become his own human being.  he is the greatest father's day gift.  i am nick's father.  it is the best thing i will ever be.