The strangeness in me recedes and is caught in cobwebbed corners before it falls slowly on the golden hair of my daughters. How strange they now seem! I recognize their dance as they skip out the front door, yet I misstep, stumbling, kissing them each goodbye.
Tag Archives: Daughters
With Marie
One day we will dance together after the sun has set on both our lives. Any sense of separation will fall away. The angels of care will prevail over the demons of despair and we will step into heaven holding each other's hand like I used to do as you learned to take your first steps along the way. "What ifs?" will no longer matter. "Whys?" will not need to be figured out. The answer to "Where?" will be right beside each of us, gracefully and gratefully, smiling at the other.
Fathers and Daughters
Fathers and daughters turn circles holding hands and paint each other's faces with favorite colors. The words spoken as the evening moves into night gently rest upon the air and need not go further towards demands for the future or place expectations that flinch in the face of possibilities. Peace rests between the generations after having shared the experience of the weekend together. Small miracles have not been overlooked. All attachments honored. Those who stumble walk again with the help of every presence. No talk of salvation arises as the fathers write daughters a letter. Each one inscribed with the words, "I am the luckiest Daddy in the world to have you as a daughter."
Notes from Daughters
We should not miss the further complexity of being a human being by pointing to one flaw after another and dismissing any innate goodness in our nature. One bad apple just tastes bad and should not be brought to the banquet table. Beware of those who tell others what to do because of the length of their list of rules. Visit, instead, places of adventure tucked away in valleys. Sit behind a roadside lemonade stand and sell a cup or two for a quarter. And on days of sickness pull out those notes written by daughters in unsure handwriting filled with I love yous and You're the best daddy.
The Note
A daughter's note begins a journal from long ago taped to the first page saying I love you. Time and seasons allow such words to guide us into mystery in a meaningful way.
Picture Exchange
A drawn rainbow shimmers on the page, orange, green and blue, under a scribbled rain. A snowman holds up its arms, wearing a black hat and purple scarf, smiling. Pictures exchanged by sisters, taped to a page long ago,
Let’s Remake the World by Pedaling Faster
…after Gregory Orr
Let’s remake the world by pedaling faster
because the Dairy Queen can’t wait
at the end of our bicycle ride.
And the smiles speed brings
to the faces of my daughters
pulled along behind me
makes the circling madness
of my legs make sense.
Let’s “Go faster, Daddy!
so fast that our hair,
rushing behind us,
can’t catch us
and won’t get stuck
in the ice cream.”
Published: https://www.thewell.world/about/news/2020/04/08/mindful-poetry-virtual-gathering-2