Dads

With every bump, bruise and small cut our love and care for our children is deepened. In retrospect, the internal bumps and bruises seem the deepest, and I wonder whether those emotional traumas are ever totally recovered from. In their young lives, my two sons and later my daughter had witnessed things that would have left an enduring image on their hearts and minds.

They had grown up, become adults and had families of their own now. I wondered at how the terrors of their youth colored their own parenting skills. I wondered if they recalled the specific event that elicited the emotional response. Did they look at the event objectively or still regard it from the emotional vision of the child that was present? These little moments that altered their trajectory toward self-awareness. Most of all, I wondered if they had found it in their hearts to forgive me for allowing them to happen.