A Spikey Hair Riddle

I have a riddle for you. What will make you age faster while at the same time keep you young longer? To find the answer, we have to look to a small green jar.

After a 12 hour shift at the part-time 911 dispatching gig earlier this week, I came home to the regular, excited hugs from SI and NE. Shortly after settling in, you both became enamored with the new green jar on the counter. Upon hearing that it’s for my hair, and noticing my new haircut, you immediately wanted to have “spikey hair” too. This is the result of our laughter-filled 10 minutes spent working on your hair.

As I lay down that night to text these pictures to your mother, who was at summer camp with SD, I took a longer look at them…and within seconds, I was welling up with so many different thoughts and emotions. To see these pictures of you boys cracks me up because I was there in the moment to experience the giggles. But looking at them each as just a picture, so many thoughts come to mind…in particular, how tight and close you will both be growing up together…you are already very close, even though you fight and bicker daily. That you’ll always have each other’s back…and will be there for each other…and your sister. That you’re already learning how to stick up for each other when forces from outside our family attack. You’ve already started applying the truth that while it may be “okay” for you to pick on each other, it’s NOT okay for someone from outside our family to pick on us.

Your mom and I consider ourselves SO embraced by the hand of God, so deeply and richly blessed to have been given not just one of you, but both of you…that you would have each other to depend on throughout life…that together you’ll be able to help look after the needs of your sister when we’re gone. Just these two pictures, independent of the memory of the moment in which they were taken, make me smile and cry at the same stinking moment.

So, the answer to the riddle…what will make you age faster while at the same time keep you young longer? The answer to that is easy for any parent. You all have been (and will for a long time continue to be) the cause of so many of my grey hairs, worry, stress and tears…and even more of my laughs, smiles, fun and joy. I would not give up one grey hair…not a single one!! As I age, I will wear my grey (and maybe still “spikey”) hair as a badge of honor, displaying for everyone to see and know that each and every one was bore from a love so deep for my children that when they look in my eyes, they will see the excitement, energy, laughter and smiles of my youth, lived through the joy you bring me daily.

Love,

Dad