WHAT FATHERS DO

This is one of my favorite family photos, and it represents what I’ll be celebrating this Father’s Day. It shows my husband and our youngest daughter after she fell down while waiting for the bus to take her to kindergarten. John was clearly in the middle of taking out the trash, but he stopped what he was doing and totally focused on her. What I see in this picture is patience, love, tolerance and delight from John and trust, relief, comfort and confidence that Daddy will indeed “make it all better.”

When something bad happens in your life, you need someone willing to sit down on the ground with you and tell you that it will be alright. We all need someone to talk through your challenges and make you realize that you can conquer your fears. Even to this day, I call my parents when something bad happens to me. My dad is always a calming voice of reason, providing much-needed perspective and offering advice on how to move forward.

Who does this for you and your life? Is it your spouse? A best friend? A business coach? Maybe it’s your dad.

The beautiful thing about this is that as a parent, it’s easy to see that whatever she’s crying about is actually nothing serious to worry about.

Now think about whatever’s worrying you.

I’m not saying that your worries aren’t real or that your challenges don’t matter. But I am saying that usually, if we could talk it out with someone and look at the situation from a different perspective, we might see that it really will be “all better” in the end.

I hope you have wonderful people in your life to help make you feel better, people that you can lean on and call on when you’re having a bad day.

Happy Father’s Day to my father, my husband and to all those fathers who are willing to stop what they are doing, sit down on the ground and tell their kids that it will be alright.