Daughters

A labor of love brought my groovy glass tables back to life!

Today is my father's birthday. He's 74 years old, which seems hard to believe, but since I've been alive for all but 30 of his years, I guess it kinda makes sense that he's getting up there.

Yesterday he returned to me the wood table bases that he fixed for me so I could once again use my groovy glass top tables in my groovy 60s pad. Apparently he worked on them for hours and hours and I am super appreciative.

We've had an up and down relationship across our time on this Earth together. It hasn't been easy, but through it all I've always loved and admired parts of my Dad and I know that being one of his daughters (as John Mayer says) has shaped who I am and who I choose to love:

I know a girl
She puts the color inside of my world
But she's just like a maze
Where all of the walls all continually change
And I've done all I can
To stand on her steps with my heart in my hands
Now I'm starting to see
Maybe it's got nothing to do with me

Fathers, be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers, be good to your daughters too

Oh, you see that skin?
It's the same she's been standing in
Since the day she saw him walking away
Now she's left
Cleaning up the mess he made

I've experienced what feels like a lifetime of healing since my marriage, and a whole lot more on top of that since I met and was with the New Englander. I believe that the healing helps me discern when I'm drawn to the aspects of men that are like my father that are positive -- smart, funny, active, and nature-loving -- and to try to steer clear of those who exhibit signs of the aspects of my father that are not so positive -- the emotional unavailability, the quick temper, the lingering sadness:

So fathers, be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers, be good to your daughters too

Boys, you can break
You find out how much they can take
Boys will be strong
And boys soldier on
But boys would be gone without the warmth from
A woman's good, good heart

One thing's for sure, it is a very powerful connection, that of fathers and daughters. I see that with my daughter and her father, too -- he means the world to her:

On behalf of every man
Looking out for every girl
You are the god and the weight of her world

So fathers, be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers, be good to your daughters too