Happy Father's Day, American Version

I just wanted to wish all of you in the U.S., Happy Father’s Day! In Germany we usually celebrate it in the month of May and it usually celebrated on a Thursday, this year it happened to be celebrated on May 1^st. I wrote about my father in honor of the occasion.

I’d just like to say that if you haven’t already done something for Father’s Day (even if you have already, why not), give some thought to your Dad. Many of us have had wonderful Dads. Some of us may have strained relations with our Dads, but maybe now is the time to reach out and offer an olive branch. For those of you fathers out there that have been negligent on the Dad end, why not try to heal those relationships? Sometimes the communication in our relationships becomes labored, maybe even non-existent, and maybe water starts to collect under the bridge. I hope that it doesn’t take some kind of tragedy to bring you closer to your Dad, or that you lose your father only regretting that you didn’t mend that relationship. Dad can be a good guy to have in your corner. He is usually one of your biggest fans, before you do a single thing.

To all you Dads out there, take a bow. To you new and expecting fathers, welcome to the club, you’re entering a challenging and wonderful world. You’ll receive some of your greatest joy through the life of your kids, you’ll also receive some of your greatest sorrows. When our oldest daughter was new to this world and I was driving to the hospital one day, I heard “With Arms Wide Open” by Creed, I already owned the CD Human Clay that contained the song and had heard several times, but it was like I was hearing it for the first time. I instantly connected with the words of a man that had just heard that he was going to be father and was wondering if he would be up to the task, who wanted to show to world to his child. This instantly became Anna’s song. Later on when my youngest daughter was born we had a theme song for her as well. Here song is by a German band that I’m not able to find online at the moment, I will need to search for this and see if I can find it. I recently heard “Till I Was A Daddy Too” by Tracy Lawrence, the song talks about an appreciation that the writer experienced for his father by becoming a father. I’ve embedded the YouTube video above, you can say that this is a dedication to the new and young fathers, and even to the old battle-tested fathers as well. If you’ve been to a wedding in the last few years you might have heard “Butterfly Kisses” by Bob Carlisle, you can see the video on YouTube here and there is a CD with two different versions of the song on Butterfly Kisses (Shades Of Grace). Another song that is destined to be played for many daddy/daughter dances is “I Loved Her First” by Heartland, the song can be found on the CD I Loved Her First and there is a Youtube video here. One of the oldest and probably best knows songs about being a father is “Cats In The Craddle” by Harry Chapin, where he talks about how his son grew up without him hardly being around, an inspiration to parents to be there for their kids. You can find several versions of this on YouTube, I even heard a version from Guns N Roses! You can find this song on the CD The Essentials, although I’m sure that it is on more than one album. These are all songs that talk about being a dad, so pick one or all of them, turn up your speakers, and think about dad.

Do you have a story to tell about your dad, or about being a dad? If you have any other comments, I would love to hear them. If you liked this article, please consider subscribing to the blog via RSS or email, share it on del.icio.us or on Digg and pass it on to anyone that you think might appreciate it. Thank you. :)

On Deck…

I’ll be publishing posts about…

• The next in my series of weight loss strategies
• My next Spotlight on the web.
• More on productivity, web 2.0, social networking, family, parenting, health, and other things that you can use.

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