On June 21st we will officially enter summer! Hooray! Time to watch the flowers bloom, take a walk on the beach in the sun, or just hang out in the hammock reading a good book on the new Kindle or the old fashioned way. It’s all good!
As always, the children will be delighted that school is out. And of course there will be those anxious teenagers looking for summer jobs.
As for the adults, well . . . I do have some advice for those who say, “Summer for me is not what it used to be when I was a kid.” Yeah, OK, that’s true. You’ve got to work and be responsible and all. BUT, that’s no reason why you can’t do some playing yourself. I have a friend who’s in his mid-sixties and still plays in a softball league! Now, that’s the spirit!
Let us not forget that June is also time for graduations and weddings. Yes, all very important to celebrate, but the one June event I want to focus on for a moment is Fathers Day.
It was during my Mothers Day yearly special on WXLO radio in Worcester Massachusetts that one of the guys at the station remarked that mothers get all the acknowledgement. And it got me thinking about sharing what my years of connections with people have taught me about fathers…things that often don’t get mentioned.
There are numerous times when a man comes into the family, and while not being the “biological” father, still takes on the fatherly role most willingly. He assumes not only the financial responsibilities, but also actively loves his wife’s kids, not caring whether or not they are actually his in a biological sense. I wish I could tell you how many times during my sessions this truism is expressed by a daughter or son, who say without question, “He was my father.”
There are also many times when, during a divorcing situation, the father wants nothing more than to continue to be “a good dad.” Sadly, many wives do everything in their power to isolate him from his children. Still, the fathers hang in there and do the best they can under the most trying of circumstances.
Of course there are some men who don’t take responsibility-the so-called “deadbeat dads”-but for every one of them there are so many more who go above and beyond the call of family duty, in the name of love and what is right. So here’s a tribute to all those men who take on that extra duty, and work two or three jobs if they have to, just to care for their their family. And more often than not, they still will still find time to play catch, teach their kids how to fish, and hug them like there’s no tomorrow.
As Bob Dylan sang in the early Sixties, and which is still so very true today, “The Times They Are A-Changin’.” Just one example: I was in a restaurant for my birthday on Memorial Day, watching two sets of parents. It was the men who were caring for the babies, talking cheerily about their kids. I thought, “How cool is that?” A real symbol of what fathers are about in 2012!
So fathers, enjoy your Fathers day!
And fathers and everyone, please also take time to enjoy summer, starting now! You want to do a weekend workshop to boost your spirits? Keep this in mind…I’ll be at Omega again in July for my intensive weekend workshop, always fun and enlightening. For my summer travel, I’m hitting Portland for an all- day event-very excited to return there-and of course I will be visiting many places on the East Coast. Take a look at my schedule to see when I’ll be coming your way.
