To Be a Dad

June is a celebration of fathers. Mothers are celebrated well, and rightly so. Mothers carry and deliver life and nurture and manage so much. But Dads. Dads are often the overlooked providers, the quiet pillars, the balance, the roughhouse, the "yes dears".

Men that throw themselves wholeheartedly into fatherhood, who provide a validating and healthy stabilizing force to their families, are truly irreplaceable. It's the men that show little boys what manhood is through their endless grit, persistance, and work ethic. They are the door holders, the mom huggers, and the respect others. It's the men that sweep baby girls off their feet and show them what they are worth and will accept from this world. A good, healed, tolerant, firm, fair father is truly irreplaceable.

It becomes evermore clear that sometimes fathers don't even understand the true weight of their role in the lives of their littles. They underestimate just how life-changing it is to have a dad that balances acceptance and discipline, real fun and high moral standards. But we do see it in the growing generations, the difference it makes in the adolescents and young adults whose fathers showed up in all these marvelous, manly ways.

When a father is a rock and leader, the children are just...more. More stable, more fearless, more kind. Assertive, confident, hardworking. Self-assured, centered, brave. Just....more. A father who always tries his best, apologizes when he gets it wrong, and then jumps back in wholeheartedly again is truly irreplaceable.

So here's to the dads that show up. The ones who stay grounded and firm, but human and trying. There is no such thing as a perfect dad, but there is something about the kindhearted and hardworking ones that really makes a family better as a whole. June is the month we celebrate you, but i truly hope, from the bottom of my heart, you know how celebrated, life-changing, even world-changing you are every day.