By Robin Quillon, CNHI News
Twenty-five years ago, I pecked on the glass to get the attention of the veteran nurse. She looked up and smiled. She knew why I was there.
Pointing to my baby girl, I mouthed the words through the glass, “Can I come in and hold her?”
She waved me in, and motioned me toward the only chair in the room – an old oak rocker.
It was a chair, I imagined, many new dads before me had sat in, doing the exact same thing I was about to do: hold my first born for the first time.
I was squirmy and nervous and the chair let out an experienced creak as I shifted in the seat, waiting for my little girl.
I felt like a fish in a tank. Visitors looking at their new babies were also checking me out – smiling, giving me the thumbs-up.
Looking back, it strikes me as fitting that new fathers had to sit in a hard-oak rocking chair instead of a plush La-Z-Boy.
As simple as it seems, it takes effort to make a rocking chair work properly. It requires skill to find the right rhythm.
The same can be said about raising children. No how-to manual popped out when my child was born.
I thought to myself: If this old chair could talk, imagine the stories it could tell. The prayers it has heard. The whispers of hopes and dreams of parents for their children. The deals offered to Heavenly Father.
The nurse rounded the corner and headed my way holding my little bundle. She gently placed Candace in my arms and I began to rock. She was only a few hours old and I was holding her in my arms for the very first time.
As I looked into her eyes, I wondered, what would she become? The possibilities were endless.
I left the hospital that day with a renewed sense of purpose, taking personal inventory and asking: Am I becoming the kind of person that I want to become?
Every new year is like a birth. We are given the opportunity to take a serious look in the mirror. If you don’t like what you see, or you realize that you are not heading in the right direction, you can change.
One way, I believe, is to establish goals in life. And setting goals does not have to be an arduous task.
For me, a goal needs to be specific, attainable, personal, measurable.
The dawn of 2010 is an open book with blank pages waiting to be filled by each of us. I wish each of you good luck in doing so.
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Robin L. Quillon is the publisher of The Tribune-Democrat in Johnstown, Pa. Contact him at rquillon@tribdem.com.
