This lovely birthday post in honor of his daughter Emily is one that I knew our readers would find inspiring and from the heart. Thank you Springfield Dad, Johnny Molson, for sharing this lovely note with our readers!
“This is one of two days each year I spend with an extra smile. It would be easy to get all melancholy about “how fast it all goes” and lament that “it was just yesterday…”
But, for me, the truth is I always look at today and marvel. A parent has any number of influences on a kid but, so what? On Emily’s birthday I always sit with the fascination that she is an amalgam of an infinite number of things. Things that she has chosen to mold into the person that she is.
I’ll simply say, at 17 she has chosen well. She has some pretty good instincts, and she leads with her heart. She’ll find that there are times when that may not be the best idea, but it’s hardly ever the wrong idea. Logic is for wimps. Intellect rarely is.
Emily, somebody arbitrarily decided that “18” is the magic line when one becomes an adult, as somehow this is your “last” year as a kid. You are neither “kid” nor “adult.” You’re not a “baby” or a “grown-up.” You are one really cool person zipping along on this rock with the rest of us. People are mostly awesome… a few not so much. Times are mostly good, peppered with scant moments of maddening absurdity. But, without pepper… ya get a pretty dull meal. Airplanes take off against the wind, not with it – – and all that jazz.
Enjoy your day. I love you, sweets.”
