August 28, 2006 - Evolution

My daughter is fighting a cold, which means that she isn't her most jovial, cheerful self.  Diaper changes mean a bazillion decibels of piercing screams (man, this kid's got a set of lungs), which take their toll on her sleep-deprived father.  Nursing sessions mean she's a fussy butterball, squirming as I try to calm her down enough to start eating.  If anything, we've learned that patience is indeed a virtue... the level of which, albeit slowly, is constantly rising.  That's good... by the time she's 15, I'll need it.

I'd like to think that, as time goes on, I'm getting better at living life, that with each passing day, hour and minute, I learned something.

Life is a constant learning experience.  We each accumulate lessons over the course of our lifetimes.  We learn about how to get along in this thing called life without disappearing... how to retain a sense of humor when all hell breaks loose... how to reel in a friend who's lost the way... how to tell who your friends really are and who aren't... what love is really about... that the only people we can change is ourselves... which fights are worth fighting... that patience is something one learns... how to have fun and be stupid, yet still retain one's dignity... that respect is earned, not freely given... and that laughter will get us through it all.

By the time I'm old and gray (if God has it in His plan for me to get there), I'd love to say that I've lived my life for all it was worth.  If I continue my journey the way it's been going, I'll get there, with heaps of great memories to keep me company (I blah blah'd this, I blah blah'd that), listed in a book that only I will get to read.