Daddy Here

Hello everyone! This is my first post and you may find me dropping in from time-to-time giving my reflections on the fam. We are having a blast and learning each day, and I have yet to find what people are referring to when they speak on the burden of child raising. Most of the trouble seems to come externally, and not internally.

I was asked last night by a friend what the biggest change I had encountered and how it made me feel; they wanted to know about me and not necessarily familial changes. The most obvious thing that has changed has been the succession of the many little hobbies I have (reading, writing, fighting, browsing, taking things apart and not putting them back together, half finished woodworking projects), all of which I have find considerably less time for. But, what I found hard to answer was the part on how it makes me feel, because truly I had not considered the effects of their disposal.

Hobbies are an incredibly important part of mans life, resting right along side exercise, diet, sex, spirituality, and success, and the man without them often finds himself a wretch. We are made to produce, when we don't we contradict our nature. But, they are interchangeable and hobbies of equal satisfaction can easily replace the hobby that given up. This is how I look at Hannah. She is my new and most gratifying hobby. She is what I currently do when I am not working.

I still read, but my reading has taken on a new perspective as reading always does. Unlike the boob-tube books have a way of transforming to meet your current situation. I love to read biographies and used to pick them up for the purpose of finding those unique qualities in men that gave them the ability to render great services to society. Now I read about men like Alexander the Great, Theodore Roosevelt, Aristotle, and Frankenstein to find the unique virtues that allowed them to be great partners. Partners to my wife, to my daughter, to my colleagues, and to all others that I meet. There is no doubt that the tremendous power books had on my desire to "change the world," will be any less with my desire to raise a daughter. Do you know what history teaches you? It's all going to be alright, focus on the solution and not the problem, look ahead and not down, fight for whats right, and LIVE your life for SOMETHING. You only get one shot.

So, to sum all of that up; I am unchanged. I do not regret dropped hobbies, because my new one holds much richer rewards for all of man kind. The greatest thing I can do for the world is raise a solid child. The rest is icing on my cake.

Thanks to EVERYONE for all that you do, and keep reading. Give us feedback and ideas. We welcome all opinions, because it only makes us stronger. WE LOVE ALL OF YOU!