Happy Father’s Day everyone.
It’s no secret to anyone who knows me that I miss my father every day. Seventeen years was nowhere near enough time together.
I had a lot more to learn from him and he had a lot more to pass along. We packed as much into those seventeen years as we could, made tremendous memories, had an indelible relationship and closeness that perhaps only a father and first born son could have and I’m grateful for every moment we shared together.
As I work to raise my boys I constantly think about what i’d be calling him up and asking him, what I’m missing, what I’m still learning and what didn’t we have the time and years to talk about that I so very dearly could use his fatherly advice on.
More than anything, I just wish he was still around. He would have made an amazing grandfather.
I’m the same age now as when he passed away and my boys are roughly the same ages as me and one of my brothers were. We have another brother and he was very young at that time.
I’ve always divided my life into two phases; up to 47 and beyond 47. That’s where the line was drawn for me. Now, I’m in my bonus time. The time that he didn’t get to see but that I get to make the most of. That’s how I can honor and remember him.
It’s important to me that my dad gets to see this time of my life thru me and that my boys get to experience it with me.
Maybe this answers some of the questions I get as to why I do what I do, live the way I live, say the things I say and make the choices that I make.
Quite frankly, that doesn’t really matter. I don’t need anyone to understand and I don’t answer to anyone outside of my family.
If anything I do, actions I take, say, write or live by helps you, that’s great. It does make me feel good and my dad was also the type of man who enjoyed helping people, putting smiles on their faces, inspire them and always treated everyone well from the basement to the boardroom.
One of the reasons I do this and speak to so many men thru the podcast is to fill some of that void, seek out advice, mentorship, conversation, support and hear the stories of lessons learned and passed along from father’s to sons and share them with other men.
While I had only seventeen years with my father, I’m grateful and realize that even those seventeen years were longer than many boys/men get to have and experience. Some are taken too soon, some choose to leave, some there but not present. Everyone’s got their own story.
There are two things I’ve learned that i’ll leave you with:
1) Your life can be changed at any moment by things beyond your control
2) You can change your life at any moment by taking control
Happy Father’s Day everyone.
In Health
G
