My Shadow

T has been following me around the house lately - like my little new shadow. He is constantly talking away and occasionally an intelligible word will make its way out in the form of a question: "dhd askasd askuasd cookie? Yes."

This morning we all piled in the car to head out to a Father's Day breakfast in Georgetown. I headed out to the car a few minutes early to get T all strapped in and he immediately took off out the garage door, around the corner, up to the porch and stopped at the doorbell. I trotted along behind to corral him back to the car. By the time I caught up, he was already pressing on the doorbell.

I reached out and took his hand -he still can only comfortably hold two of my fingers - and we slowly walked back to the garage, stopping along the way to inspect every leaf and bug. As we rounded the corner into the sunlight, our shadow appeared on the ground before us. T stopped, pointed, looked up at me and babbled something.

He was right, of course. All these weeks of training had left my legs looking fantastic! Uh, wait. Maybe that's not what he meant.

The image of the shadow stirred me and has been stuck in my head all day. A father and son holding hands - how appropriate for Father's Day. It suddenly hit me how much my life had changed in the past few years... A new baby, another new baby on the way, turning 30, getting in shape, changing my life for the better. I suddenly felt very happy and a good sense of accomplishment. I'm a really lucky guy to have such a great, supportive family. It was an honor and a blessing to spend Father's Day with my son and beautiful (and pregnant) wife.

Time stood still for that one instant. It was awesome to appreciate one of those instant milestones that will be with me forever. I hope your Father's Day was as great as mine.

Now go call your dad.

See ya out there...