Good Feelings

I sometimes wonder if anyone else gets feelings of pride / joy / gratefulness / tranquility from the most basic moments in life. For example, I was driving from a relatives house in Des Moines to my home in KC a few weeks ago. And, for no particular reason, I just had this tremendous feeling of joy to be living in the US in this day and age.

There I was, driving a couple hundred miles in a few hours, on my way back from going to see a minor league baseball game the night before where my favorite player growing up was managing. It just struck me how lucky I am to have that ability. To travel long distances in a short amount of time just for entertainment, or to visit family, or just to get away from home for a while. I saw hundreds of other people doing the same thing. And it just gave me this feeling of total satisfaction with my life.

I know it probably sounds funny to a lot of people. But, I actually get joy out of the simplest things in life like being able to travel when and where you want. It makes me pause for a moment and consider how lucky I am to be in a country where those freedoms are available, to have a job that allows me to afford those things, and to have a family to share those times with. It always makes me utter the words, even if it's only in my head, "Thank you God!"

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As a parent, I am almost always proud of the things my daughter does. A lot of times I am proud because the things she does makes me look like a good parent (even though most of the credit should go to my wife). Every parent wants their kid to be the smartest, fastest, best looking kid in the group, because we get just a little bit of enjoyment in knowing there are other parents that envy our child.

But, one of the happiest moments of my parenthood came this week when my daughter dunked her whole head under the water by herself after a swimming lesson. I know this is an almost meaningless accomplishment, but we had been trying to convince her that she could do it for quite a while. As a parent, trying to eliminate the fear a child feels is one of the hardest things because we usually can not relate to the fear. I haven't been afraid of going underwater in so long, I didn't know what there was to be afraid of. So, it was hard for me to convince her there was nothing to fear. It was a fear she had to overcome herself and the moment she did, she dunked her head another 15 times in a row just because she wasn't afraid and it made me happy. Those are the moments I treasure.

Now, if we could just convince her not to cry anytime scary sounds / music come on during a movie. I mean really, who gets freaked out from Sleeping Beauty?