Smelling the Flowers
So the other day, I swing by my three year-old son’s Sunday School class to see how he is doing potty-training-wise. He is sitting at their little table with a few other classmates eating Goldfish crackers and drinking juice. His teacher points to a poster that is on the table that has different faces on it showing different emotions. She tells me that she pointed to Happy and asked Piers what makes him happy. “Daddy” was his reply. That will melt your heart. Of all the things in this little guy’s life, that day without me being around, he said I made him happy. Read more »
Posted: July 10th, 2008 under Balance.
Comments: none
A while back my daughter had her first loose tooth. Every one was very excited as we took turns wiggling it back and forth. I made the obligatory joke about tying a string to it and a door knob but, of course, Hope would have none of that. As time went on, the tooth got looser and soon it became obvious that it would fall out in a day or two at the most. A funny thing happened to my wife and I. We both felt uneasy and a little bit of stress from it. It was funny because we were sitting at the dinner table when Hope really gave it a good wiggle and Amy and I looked at each other. Unspoken words passed between us as we both immediately felt the same thing. But why? 
My father is an amazing wood worker. All my life he has a project going and when he finishes it, it looks flawless. Chairs, chests, shelves, even a phone booth. Genetically, I feel like I too should have some kind of talent in this department but when it comes to patience, my Dad has it in spades over me. Years back I decided that I wanted to build an entertainment center to house our electronic equipment and DVDs. I drew up some plans and ran them by my father. We discussed them and modified them and ultimately came up with something workable that wasn’t very far off from my original design. Soon it was time for me to put my money where my mouth was and actually start cutting some wood. I felt the pressure of my father’s shadow looming over me as I began my work. 
One of my passions is games. Whether it is board games, video games, card games, role-playing games, or miniature games I truly enjoy playing them. Part of the reason is that it challenges my brain and I enjoy figuring out new things. My wife used to chuckle at me when I would be reading sometimes very lengthy rulebooks for entertainment. Along the way I became a game designer, writing books and articles creating new games or adding to existing ones. One of the interesting concepts of game design is the idea of game balance. That is each side needs an equal chance to win the game. I find that I’m often applying the concept of game balance to my real world life as well. 
We have a pretty regular routine at our house each night. The kids get ready for bed at the same time every night, we read them some books, tuck them in and then leave. They usually play or read in their room for a while and then fall asleep. On vacation, we could not keep the normal routine and since it was a vacation we let the kids stay up later than normal and overall just got rid of the normal schedule. It worked fine on vacation and the kids had fun but now we are back home and we need to return them back to their normal schedule, but we want to do it with a minimum of fuss. Ah, the joys of parenthood.