I know a teenager whose mom is bringing him into a therapist. He’s not the first and won’t be the last teenager to be brought to therapy. But it made me reflect on times in my own life when I’ve been unhappy.
These times were times when I wanted something but couldn’t get it. Or I thought my life should be a certain way.
It’s the discontented feeling I get when I feel like my infant daughter should be going to bed right away when my wife and I set her in her crib at 11 p.m. It’s the restless feeling I get when I look around at the house and everything seems out of order. Things shouldn’t be like this.
And the flip side is when things are going smoothly, or the way I think they should be going, and then things change. Change, I’ve always heard to embrace it or try to fight it, and we both know where fighting it will go.
Writing this is much easier than practicing it. Don’t do as I do, do as I write, right? If I could preemptively cut down my difficulties it would be myself two questions: 1. What is guiding my life at this moment? 2. How do I know what is supposed to be happening right now? Can someone text this to me when I start to get tight with and undercurrent of overwhelming?
Raising a child for the past four years has humbled me to let go of their current stage. There was a part of me that saddened when my son moved up stairs from his nursery room across the hall to his “big-boy” room. The move from toddler room to the pre-school room left a little hole in my heart.
Since the beginning of my parenthood career, I’ve learned that everything is a stage. My infant daughter just departed her bed-side bassinet for the crib in her own room. And I was much more accepting this time around.
My kids have taught me that everything is a stage, and that we are always evolving to the next platform. It was always easy for me to stay stagnant, stay 23 and care-free for a decade. But the truth in the matter I wasn’t growing. I was hanging on to what I thought were the good ol’ days.
Looking back now on those “good ol’ days” I’m realizing that today’s days are the good ol’ days that I will truly treasure.
Father Through Me 