Her World

See the path cut by the moon
For you to walk on
See the waves on distant shores
Awaiting your arrival

Her arrival healed wounds. Her smile continues to be the brightest lite in this world. Her world. We promised to give her the emotional strength and support we never had so she could not only navigate her world but one day lead it. Be who she wants to be. Tell us who she wants to be in her world. We vowed to make her world safe. We may fail at making her world safe, but we fail her if we don't teach her how to love her world. Love who's in it. Love is love. 

Kids are a delicate blank slate. They look towards the home for the way life is to be lived. It's easy to project one's interpretation of life. Both its beauty and ugliness are at our disposal and ready to be handed down like a t-shirt. Handing off this knowledge to such a moldable mind can be tricky. You want to make sure the message gets through without getting skewed. The other day she saw two guys kiss and responded as any 5-year-old would. We used it as a teaching moment and let her know it doesn't matter if it's two girls or two boys. Love is love.

Both my wife and I grew up in Boomer households. Loving households but Boomer households. Since day one, we have been a united front on how we would raise our kids. As the saying goes..."give your kids what you never had." That phrase is going to mean different things to different people. As parents, we want to make sure she has room to express herself, feel safe about being who she is, and show her the love and emotional support we didn't have.

Since March of 2017, her world has looked different than it did that glorious day. My wife and I talk a lot about our daughter's future and its various aspects. What does her world look like in 2 years? 10 years? Will her lifestyle be illegal? Will she have to show identification to cross state lines? Will she be able to pick her own career? Will she be considered a citizen? 

It pains me that I can't protect her from everything. All I can do is give her the proper weapons to battle for those who look like her, don't look like her, and don't love her. If we taught her how to love, and she passes that on while holding hands in solidarity, in the battle for what is right, then maybe her world will be ok. 

I want her world to be hers. I want his world to be his. I want their world to be safe.