Shoulders...

He used to fit on my shoulder. Seven years later, he still finds solace on my shoulder. Today Akin (Baldwin-Akin) suffered from pink-eye. From time to time he cried from the pain as his bloodshot eyes ran full of green mucous and tears. He stayed upon my shoulder a lot today.

He awoke at 4:00 AM and found me typing on the computer as I was suffering from a nasal infection. We watched "Dungeons & Dragons", "King Kong", and other classic sci-fi cartoons between his tears. He complained of a pain in his right eye, nose and general head area. I gave him some pain reliever and cleaned his eye from a crust and a semi-green gook that seemed to be building up. I shared with Wifey my belief that he had pink-eye and I fell asleep allowing him to "play on the computer" visiting Teen Titan and other cartoon websites that the content-control allowed him to peruse around 6:40 AM. I awoke at 7:40 and we went to 8:45-church. Leaving service at 11:00 AM his eye was beginning to become reddened and his complaints of pain returned. We ate, and visited a local Patient First to see if my thoughts were correct. After and hour and half we left with a prescription to treat his pink-eye. Throughout the visit Akin wanted to be held and often found himself slumping over my shoulder when he wept. He also complained of starving and being ultimately bored. Throughout the experience I could simply think of the growth over the last seven years. Now my son is a second grader, feeding and cleaning himself (although needing to be reminded to clean-up after himself), and able to have some interesting conversations. Fatherhood is great when we are alone in the world. Father and Son. I listen to Dr. Niam Akbar who shares that his children's pains are his pains, their hunger is his hunger......... I'm elated to experience the same feelings. As he cried I felt his pain, yet held a deep conviction that his pain was temporary and his future joy was inevitable. I can't lift the same amount of weight that I benched as a college student over 16 years ago, yet I can hold my son. In many ways this/his weight is the heaviest I ever faced. It's such a comforting feeling to know that I've bore the weight of a wife, continued with the weight of son, added the weight of a daughter, and I'm looking for more. I know that I'm not carrying this weight alone. I'm surrounded by friends, family, ancestors, a savior, and ultimately a creator to catch me when I fall. As I sat around a table with my parents, my in-laws, my sisters-in-law, my brother, two of my nieces (via me' brother), and my kids I heard my Mum-in-law say "God is good." I thought to my self.......Fatherhood is good. Be good yall'.