afatherswalk

I took some time off from my usual grind of rebuilding myself and my companies as an entrepreneur and spent three hours in the pool in my neighborhood.  To say it was a great time would be an understatement the day was magical the only thing missing was my wife who was not with us due to work obligations.

As my daughters played and used their imaginations to come up with games derived of princess and mermaids I watched in awe and smiles.  I allowed myself to try to imagine when I was their age; and a I did I realized and was glad my children have no idea of what it was like to grow up where I lived and how I grew up.

I had no naivety or should I say it was stripped from me due to my family’s financial status.  Poverty in the inner city streets of Harlem and Brooklyn N.Y. during the 1980′s and 1990′s surely put an end  to any form of innocence I could have had.  I am not writing this to paint a pity party on being poor but my gratefulness for my daughters not having to be succumbed to my childhood upbringing.

I do not shelter my children the neighborhood and environment I am fortunate to live in does it naturally.  I believe naivety should be reserved for all children regardless of financial status. However this ideal is not reality. But for anyone who has the grace to live in the United States even in the most impoverished areas has the chance to improve his or her circumstances financially with God’s grace.

That my friend is the love of a father knowing my daughters have the most fortunate grace of this reality.