I sometimes can’t believe I’ve found someone as beautiful and full of love as you. You have given us all a life we couldn’t even dream of. Happy birthday ❤️
10 years ago today we lost Marci.
The lesson she taught me was knowing the difference between acceptance and understanding. I’ll never pretend to understand any of it. But by accepting her life as it was, I can give her memory meaning and purpose. I appreciate every single moment I have, and Sashi keeps Marci around every day just being who she is.
Hug your family and friends tight today, and listen to the lyrics of this song. Marci loved it beyond measure.
I spent the afternoon reading this book, in the company of my two daughters and wife, who busied themselves with their own activities close to me. I had the privilege of quietly enjoying one of the most beautiful and deeply meaningful experiences of my life, reading this book, while the people I love the most were right there with me. But despite them being right beside me, the experience was only my own.
It got me thinking about how unbearably beautiful and profoundly difficult the human condition can be. We are composed of completely singular experiences. We can share a description of what we have felt or thought or tasted or touched, and we can share the thing that granted those sensations, but the ultimate knowledge is always our own, no one else’s.
I can try to articulate what this book made me feel and think, and I tried to with Genny afterward, after I turned the last page and wept. But the distance between what I experienced and my inability to clearly convey it illustrates the singularity of life.
But after sitting with it for a while, I think that’s where the beauty is, that gulf between what we know and what we can impart. That’s where I find and share my love with the girls. I want to create memories with them. I want our experience to be lived together as much as possible; though I’m careful to not be overbearing, I still want their own experiences and lives to be organic and entirely their own.
I’m not sure what happened while reading this today. I think like all great art, it made me look inward. I saw it all within the context of my own life, my own understanding of mortality and of meaning. At the end, when I’m wondering what it was all for, I can think of the afternoon sun shining softly through our window, being a part of the quiet rhythms of our household, finishing a book in shared solitude, witnessing our girls’ gentle love for each other.
Sasha graduated today. Her school next year is 7-12, so this was a real moment. I was so moved to see she was voted co-valedictorian and her hard work paid off as she soared past her academic goals. It was wonderful to have our local superhero @wabber join the graduation gathering and give a beautiful speech to these kids; inspiring as always.
Little Rosey finished her nursery school this year and is heading into pre-K. She has grown so much this year and was beaming with pride today to get her little certificate. What a brave little piglet.
All Genny and I can do is hope and be present and offer support and structure and love. But really, it’s them that do the work. These two have it in them to make their community and the world, in some small way, better. Today was a little marker that they are heading the right direction. Maybe they’ll read this one day and know how proud I am to be their Dada.
Never a shook one, you’ve spent your 50 years being brave and strong for your family and friends. We all love you so much and wish you the happiest birthday today. Have a wonderful, well-deserved trip in Tuscany. Don’t buy too many cases! Much love from Rosey, Sashi, Genny, and Broski
A milestone day today for my cousin and friend whom we all love so much. Brilliant, kind, funny but serious, thoughtful - he constantly observes the world to try to make sense of it. His life has created a cultivated taste in film and music, an inspiring sense of justice, and an exhausting opinion of what’s “really going on” behind the curtain. But his demeanour is often betrayed by his gentleness with children. This is the best measure I have for judging a person’s character, and the affection Miro shows for all kids in his life says to me what kind of man he is. Happy 50th to our ‘Mici’.
Eight years ago, when she was just three, I took Sasha to her first movie in a movie theatre. It was an important moment, this first trip. I wanted it to be the right movie and for Sasha to be at an age where she can be engaged & understand the big, dark room and the stories it could tell her. We were still learning our way around a new life, one that was now just the two of us.
The movie needed to be special. I kept looking at kids’ movies for months, then I saw a trailer for “Moana”. That was the one. When we saw it, Sasha was entranced, quietly soaking up every song and lesson. The courage young Moana showed navigating her way in uncharted waters was as inspiring for me as it was for Sasha.
Fast forward eight years, and Rosey is now three. Genny and I wanted to pick the right moment for Rosey’s first trip to the movie theatre, too. The release of Moana 2 couldn’t have been more perfect. Today, Rosey was just like Sasha eight years ago: completely dialled in, eyes wide, soaking up every moment of the story she was watching unfold. Not a peep for two hours.
Little did we know in the movie, they introduced a new little baby sister for Moana. The littler sister’s hero was her big sister Moana, wanting to be like her and cuddle with her despite the big age gap. I couldn’t believe the parallel. I looked over at Genny when the little sister showed up, her eyes were filled with tears. She saw it immediately, too.
As we were leaving the theatre, I snapped this picture. Big sis carrying her little sis, eight years apart, vastly different life experiences, but connected deeply in their hearts.
It is the greatest gift I’ve ever received, fatherhood. The girls are both my purpose and my salvation. Life is a series of interconnected moments, some filled with joy and beauty, some filled with despair. That small moment in the movie theatre today was only filled with joy.
