End of a workday at the end of a workweek, Friday night sitting at the computer not really feeling much like getting up and moving when a pink pajama-clad kid bounces up the stairs “Daddy train!”. She’d been asking since before dinnertime. Not feeling much like pulling the big plastic box full of her brothers' old train set out of the closet I was hoping she’d forget.
She didn’t forget.
The self-imposed rule is say “Yes” unless absolutely impossible to do so. Times like tonight it’s not always the most enthusiastic “yes” but I say it and act accordingly just the same; I stand to follow her to the boys’ room. Leading the way she stops to get down in sprinter start pose:
"Yoi Don!" (Ready go!)
She takes off down the hall in big bouncing steps. She beats me there, breaks into dance and starts sing song’n away. I move the stuff off the big plastic train box and pull it out of the closet. I stop and watch.
All I could do then is stand there and smile.
Breath in. Breath out.
Be present.
Bliss.
Some time later imaginary people are driving cars and trains jabbering away at each other in a little girl’s voice behind me. A boy steps into the room: “Daddy tuck tuck”. Every night that I'm home he asks without fail. Every night without fail I stop what I’m doing and heed the tuck tuck call. It may be in its final year if not months. I refuse to miss a tuck tuck. His big brother never asks anymore, but sometimes I give him one anyway. It’s a big win for me when he allows it ever since he passed the big 13.
Watching the sing song dancing girl. Tucking the giggly overly ticklish boy.
This is it.
The longer I do this Life thing, the more of it I experience, the more I realize this is it.
Everything points to Here. It all points to Now.
This moment.
This is it.
She didn’t forget.
The self-imposed rule is say “Yes” unless absolutely impossible to do so. Times like tonight it’s not always the most enthusiastic “yes” but I say it and act accordingly just the same; I stand to follow her to the boys’ room. Leading the way she stops to get down in sprinter start pose:
"Yoi Don!" (Ready go!)
She takes off down the hall in big bouncing steps. She beats me there, breaks into dance and starts sing song’n away. I move the stuff off the big plastic train box and pull it out of the closet. I stop and watch.
All I could do then is stand there and smile.
Breath in. Breath out.
Be present.
Bliss.
Some time later imaginary people are driving cars and trains jabbering away at each other in a little girl’s voice behind me. A boy steps into the room: “Daddy tuck tuck”. Every night that I'm home he asks without fail. Every night without fail I stop what I’m doing and heed the tuck tuck call. It may be in its final year if not months. I refuse to miss a tuck tuck. His big brother never asks anymore, but sometimes I give him one anyway. It’s a big win for me when he allows it ever since he passed the big 13.
Watching the sing song dancing girl. Tucking the giggly overly ticklish boy.
This is it.
The longer I do this Life thing, the more of it I experience, the more I realize this is it.
Everything points to Here. It all points to Now.
This moment.
This is it.
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