Half Year At Ludicrous Speed

 

When our son was first born people kept telling us to enjoy this time in our as it will go by faster than we could imagine. While there were some long days here and there that common sentiment holds true as the past six months have gone by at ludicrous speed. Things have certainly changed and it is hard to imagine that our growing boy was once so small trying to grasp my finger as the nurse bathed him for the first time.

Soon our son will be heading off to daycare as my wife returns to work and we hope to have a new (and permanent) place to live in the very near future. There are changes that are fast approaching and I can’t imagine that the next six month will move any slower than the last half year. I’m just glad that we heeded that early advice and done all that we could to take in each and every moment and spend as much time as we could with our son. A routine that we look forward to continuing as the days, weeks, and months slowly slip by.

While he has yet to speak a coherent word (he sounds like a drunk talking to his imaginary friend right now) he keeps trying and it is only a matter of time before he surprises us both with an as of yet unknown first word (hopefully not a Focker moment). It is one of those moments that will seem like it takes forever to happen but will actually go by so quickly that we will once again wonder where the time went. This seems to be the case with all of his milestones, major and minor.

It has already been six months and there are definitely things that we could have done differently and times when I wish I was able to be there but there is also a plethora of memories that I will cherish forever, those moments when I made sure I was there, the time during the daily routine that makes the day just a little bit better (and sometimes stinky). One would think that all of those smiles and laughs would begin running together by now but that is certainly not the case as each morning, each laugh, and each smile at his daddy, remains as vivid as the moment it happened. Six months later and I am more excited to be a dad with every new day that passes.

Having Fun

Today is a bit of an odd blogging day for me. I have been having trouble all day trying to figure out what to write about while at the same time I have so many things I would like to rant about (mostly dealing with the complete BS deal that the US and other countries has struck with Iran). There has also been a very simple fact floating around in my head in that this is the tipping point for my year of blogging. This marks my 183 post and, therefore, I have managed to post every day for just over half a year so far.

Not quite sure how I feel about that as I think it is more of a serious cause for concern more than it is an accomplishment because to post every day, regardless of topic, is a little nutty. But it is also something that has given me a daily constant. No matter what is going on that particular day I always have those 30-60 minutes to myself to put a quick post together. Of course, sometimes they take a bit longer, usually with the genealogy and photography related posts but for the most part I try and not overthink things and let myself just write.

That may be the most important part of this whole process. It is an exercise in being. For years I have spent hours if not days writing, rewriting, and polishing single lines making sure that every word had its place and purpose. While that undoubtedly is an important process and skill to have, you can quickly lose site of the actual writing process and the sense of freedom that putting words on a page (or in this case a screen) can bring to you. It is a cathartic process that most keep behind closed doors, buried in the pages of a journal, or hidden away in a file buried beneath the desktop.

That is how I used to treat my writing. Obviously, that is no longer the case. My process and my thoughts are in the posts on this blog out in the open for all to read. Whether you like it or not, here it is and here are the topics that I think about and want to write about. Whether its hobby or passion or routine I am not really sure at this point but I can say definitively that writing is a part of who I am and has been for most of my life at this point.  

But this was never intended to be a one way discussion. I think I enjoy listening to people’s comments about some of my posts than I do writing them. Whether someone agrees with me or not I get a kick out of starting that dialog and maybe making that person consider a topic, subject, or perspective that they may have otherwise overlooked. So, I guess this entire blogging process, from beginning to ‘end’, is one of the ways that I have fun. I have no idea what that makes me but I really don’t care because it is another way that I am able to enjoy my limited abilities and life in general.



But that is to be expected after an evening
filled with Guinness and Pepto-Bismol.