“Just to think of you makes my heart swell with pride.”

Can a dad say anything better to his little girl?

I’m not sure.

I wanna get this right?

…

Hmmm. Welp. Let me go ask my 11-year-old right now.

…

Ours is: I’m so glad God let me be your daddy.

He grew still and stared straight ahead through the glass doors to the nurse’s station while I talked. When I finished, he turned to me with surprise. “You got me. With that chapter.” He thought for a moment. “I didn’t know you felt all those things then.” Neither of us spoke for a moment or two; then softly I said, “Well, I did.” Dad’s eyes glazed a bit, and he said quietly, “Just to think of you makes my heart swell with pride.”

– Rosanne Cash, Composed (Amazon)

We dads have got to find a way to connect with our daughters.

I don’t think it’s talking to them, although you should do that too.

And I don’t think it’s time, although I believe that is probably the most important thing on this list.

It has to do with doing something with them – beside them – and together.

Maybe it’s playing tennis, golfing, guitar, or singing.

I don’t know.

It may even be yardwork.

All I know is that time is stealing our children from us hour by hour, as the moments become memories.

Of all the things I don’t want to fumble, this is top three.

Gosh, I hope they always smile when they think of me.

Understand: Daughters rule.

I declined once more, but as I watched him walk out of the room, there was something about the look of his back, and the look of him walking away, and the memory of the thousands of times I had seen his strong back from the wings as he faced an audience, that made me suddenly realize what it meant to him. I called after him. “Dad. I’ll do it,” I said. That night, as we sang together, all the old pain dissolved. I felt the longing to connect completely satisfied. Under the lights, in the safety of a few thousand people who loved us like crazy just then, I got something from my dad that I’d been trying to get since I was about six years old. Oddly, I don’t think we’d ever been as close.

– Rosanne Cash, Composed (Amazon)