Happy Father's Day

Yesterday, I was getting up and briefing at this time of day. Now, 24 hours later, I'm just about to go to bed. Somewhere in there I've gotten a couple hour nap and seven hours of sleep last night, but my schedule is back to the "night" schedule for a couple days. I've stopped trying to keep track. I did get to see the sun today, during the afternoon FOD walk down on the flight deck. My 20 minutes of sun. Other than that, the only way to tell whether it's day or night is by the color of lights in the passage ways. At night, most of the lights go to red. And around this time at night (about 3am), many of the passage ways up here on the O-3 level get taped off by sections to get rewaxed. It's often a maze to find your way around the wet wax areas. It's always good to have two or three routes to get anywhere. I wonder what guys do when they wax right in front of their stateroom door. I've never had to deal with that problem, thankfully.

While it's early Monday morning for me, back home it's still Father's Day. Today didn't feel much like a Father's Day. No more than Valentines Day, Easter, or Mother's Day felt any different than any other day. Chaplain Callaham had all the dads stand up in church this morning. There was a cake at the brunch. That was about it. Another work day, guys up on the flight deck sweating for 14 hours, engineers standing eight-hour watches somewhere down below. There's no real rest at sea. That's what we signed up for. I'm proud to be here, but this was one day I would have loved to be home. I miss coming home from work and hearing Beth yell "Daaaaaaadyyyyyy!" I literally would have three girls run at me at the door (on some days, anyway), with a fourth crawling not far behind. Of course, I guess it might be four running now. I know those days are few when they will be excited to see me come home from a normal day's work. Soon they will have many of their own concerns and practices and friends and dates and phone calls and homework and you name it. I know I'll always have a special place in their lives, but I'm sure I'll never have a big a portion as I do right now. When I'm home, anyway. I cherish the time I have with my girls. I know I don't always set the example I want to. I'm definitely not a perfect dad. But I certainly don't lack for want of love of my girls. They are everything to me and I can't put into words how much I love being their daddy.

A relationship between a man and his daughters is different in a lot of ways than the relationship between a man and his son. Although I'm learning a lot as I go, I had great head start on how to be a dad from my own father. He taught me what it means to love unconditionally. He taught me what it means to be a leader in the home. He taught me how to be compassionate yet firm. He gave me the freedom to make mistakes and helped me learn from them. He taught me to enjoy life. Most of these things I learned from him were simply by living with him, by watching him, by listening to him. My dad has never hesitated to give me a huge hug when we meet or when we part. I know that he loves me because he told me so. I don't take those things for granted. It's hard for a lot of men to express that kind of emotion, but because he taught me, I am able to pass that kind of tenderness on to my girls who need it ever so much more. Maybe my hugs to them are not quite so bear-ish, but sometimes they are. There's nothing like sharing a hug with the girls after I get back from a run! One guess where I learned that. I could probably write for hours about the lessons I learned from my dad. I can't put in words, though, how much I appreciate how he taught me to be a man, how he prepared me to be a father, and how he set me up for success. I hope I can pass on the legacy. Thank you, dad. I love you, too.