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{HeartTouchers.com} *Wake-Up Call* ______________________________________ If you enjoy this email service, I encourage you to spread the word to family and friends that we may bring inspiration the lives of many! If you are not on the list and this has been passed along to you, join us by visiting: http://www.HeartTouchers.com Be sure to check out our inspirational list just for teenagers! http://www.Heart4Teens.com ____________________________________________ Michael's updated book Heart Touchers "Life-Changing Stories of Faith, Love, and Laughter," is finally here! ($13.95) Visit the link below to preview the book! Personalized autographed copies are available at no extra charge and we pay the shipping for you! An E-book version is also available for just $3.25! http://www.hearttouchers.com/books Be sure to let us know who you would like it autographed for and then allow about two weeks for us to sign it and send it on its way to you.Credit card, PayPal, Checks, and Money orders accepted! The book is also available through Amazon.com, Borders.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and Booklocker.com _____________________________________ Wake-Up Call By Bob Welch I was sitting in a bathtub full of moldy sheetrock when my 13-year-old son asked the question. "Can you take me golfing sometime?" he said. I had a bathroom to remodel. It was fall, and the forecast for the next week was for a 100 percent chance of Oregon's liquid sunshine. I wanted to say no. "Sure," I said. "What did you have in mind?" "Well, maybe you could, like, pick up Jared and me after school on Friday and take us out to Oakway." "Sounds good." Friday came. The showers continued. Looking out the window, moldy sheetrock seemed the saner choice. But at the appointed hour, I changed from home-improvement garb to rain-protection garb and loaded the boys' clubs and mine in the back of the car. In front of the school, Ryan and Jared piled in. Ryan looked at me with a perplexed expression. "What's with the golf hat, Dad?" he said. It was, I thought, a silly question, like asking a scuba diver what's with the swim fins. "Well, I thought we were going to play some golf." A peculiar pause ensued, like a phone line temporarily gone dead. "Uh, you're going, too?" he asked. Suddenly, it struck me like a three-iron to my gut: I hadn't been invited. Thirteen years of parenting flashed before my eyes. The birth. The diapers. The late-night feedings. Helping with homework. Building forts. Fixing bikes. Going to games. Going camping. Going everywhere together -- my son and I. Now I hadn't been invited. This was it. This was the end of our relationship as I had always known it. This was "Adios, Old Man, thanks for the memories but I'm old enough to swing my own clubs now so go back to your rocking chair and crossword puzzles and -- oh yeah -- here's a half-off coupon for your next bottle of Geritol." All these memories sped by in about two seconds, leaving me about three seconds to respond before Ryan would get suspicious and think I had actually expected to be playing golf with him and his friend. I had to say something. I wanted to say this: 'How could you do this to me? Throw me overboard like unused crab bait?' We had always been a team. But this was abandonment. Adult abuse. This was Lewis turning to Clark in 1805 and saying: "Later, Bill. I can make it the rest of the way to Oregon without you." John Glenn radioing Mission Control to say thanks, but he could take it from here. Simon bailing out on Garfunkel during "Bridge Over Troubled Water." Why did it all have to change? Enough of this mind-wandering. I needed to level with him. I needed to express how hurt I was. Share my gut-level feelings. Muster all the courage I could find, bite the bullet, and spill my soul. So I said, "Me? Play? Naw. You know I'm up to my ears in the remodel project." We drove on in silence for a few moments. "So, how are you planning to pay for this?" I asked, my wounded ego reaching for the dagger. "Uh, could you loan me seven dollars?" Oh, I get it. He doesn't want me, but he'll gladly take my money. "No problem," I said. I dropped him and Jared off, wished them luck, and headed for home. My son was on his own now. Nobody there to tell him how to fade a five-iron, how to play that tricky downhiller, how to hit the sand shot. And what if there's lightning? What about hypothermia? A runaway golf cart? A band of militant gophers? He's so small. Who would take care of him? There I was, alone, driving away from him. Not just for now. Forever. This was it. The bond was broken. Life would never be the same. I walked in the door. "What are you doing home?" my wife asked. I knew it would sound like some 13-year-old who was the only one in the gang not invited to the slumber party, but maintaining my immature demeanor, I said it anyway "I wasn't invited," I replied, with a trace of snottiness. Another one of those peculiar pauses ensued. Then my wife laughed. Out loud. At first I was hurt. Then I, too, laughed, the situation suddenly becoming much clearer. I went back to the bathroom remodel and began realizing that this is what life is all about: change. This is what fathers and sons must ultimately do: change. This is what I've been preparing him for since he first looked at me and screamed in terror: not to play golf without me, but to take on the world without me. With his own set of clubs. His own game plan. His own faith. God was remodeling my son. Adding some space here. Putting in a new feature there. In short, allowing him to become more than he could ever be if I continued to hover over him. Just like when I was a kid and, at Ryan's age, I would sling my plaid golf bag over my shoulder and ride my bike five miles across town to play golf at a small public course called Marysville that I imagined as Augusta National. I remember how grown-up I felt, walking into that dark clubhouse, the smoke rising from the poker game off to the left, and proudly pluncking down my two dollars for nine holes. Would I have wanted my father there with me that day? Naw. A boy's gotta do what a boy's gotta do: grow up. I went back to the bathroom remodel project. A few hours later, I heard Ryan walk in the front door. I heard him complain to his mother that his putts wouldn't drop, that his drives were slicing, and that the course was like a lake. He sounded like someone I knew. His tennis shoes squeaked with water as I heard him walk back to where I was working on the bathroom. "Dad," he said, dripping on the floor, "my game stinks. Can you take me golfing sometime? I need some help." I wanted to hug him. Rev my radial-arm saw in celebration. Shout: "I'm still needed!" I wanted to tell God, "Thanks for letting me be part of this kid's remodel job." Instead, I got one of those serious-dad looks on my face and stoically said, "Sure, Ry, anytime." Bob Welch bwelch1@concentric.net Send Bob an e-mail and let him know what you thought of his story! ____________________ Bob is the features editor of the Register-Guard Newspaper in Eugene, OR and the author of many books, including Father For All Seasons (Harvest House Publishers). Bob's wonderful stories have also been published in Sports Illustrated, Readers Digest, and Focus on the Family. You can order his newest book: American Nightingale: The Story of Frances Slanger, Forgotten Heroine of Normandy at: http://www.amazon.com/American-Nightingale-Frances-Forgotten-Normandy/dp/0743477596/sr=1-1/qid=1160491693/ref=sr_1_1/002-7161458-2545636?ie=UTF8&s=books _________________________________________ Thought For The Day: "The world wants your best but God wants your all." Verse for the Day: "Thou shalt love the Lord your God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." --Matthew 22:37 Kid's Thought for the Day: "If you want someone to listen to what you are saying, whisper it." Parent's Thought For The Day "Men who have fought in the world's bloodiest wars....are apt to faint at the sight of a truly foul diaper." --Gary D. Christenson Coach's Thought For The Day "Competition is the spice of sports, but if you make spice the whole meal, you'll be sick." --George Leonard Writer's Thought For The Day: "The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible." --Vladimir Nabokov Deep Thought For The Day: "If thine enemy offend thee, give his child a drum." -- Fran Lebowitz _________________________________________ Inspired Audio -- Inspirational Audio Message of the Week! Inspired Audio is a brand new offshoot of HeartTouchers.com. Every week we will offer a different audio message that you can listen to right on your computer as you are surfing the net or just getting things done around the house. Be sure to come back and visit each week! This Week: "Science: What is True" by Author Michael T. Powers http://www.HeartTouchers.com/Inspired_Audio _________________________________________ Over 90,000 people have listened to popular Chicken Soup Author Michael T. Powers' free inspirational message entitled: "Breathing Life into Others". If you aren't one of them just visit: http://www.HeartTouchers.com and click on the link to listen to the free streaming audio message! __________________________________________ Video Imagery --Michael's Video Production Business Dear Michael, I just wanted to take a minute to thank you for the beautiful video you made for me! It was so special to see both of my parents in tears as they watched their children grow up in pictures before their eyes! I loved the way you made Estania's part set aside from the rest--that was the part that really got them! The music was beautiful. My mom kept blubbering, "What song is that?" I don't know how you did such a beautiful job with the video in such a short time. I really appreciate your doing it so quickly. You have a wonderful gift, and I thank God that you are using it to create such sentimental memories. I hope that I can find my niche like that in an area that I love. Your video gave us one of our most lasting Christmas memories! I hope yours was filled with moments to be treasured forever! Love, Trisha Silverhill, AL Let me make you a video from your photos! Check out my video production business by visiting: http://www.hearttouchers.com/video_imagery __________________________________________ Do you feel as if life has no meaning for you? http://www.greatcom.org/english/four.htm |
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Touching Lives - One E-mail at a Time! Author Michael T. Powers - HeartTouchers @ aol.com
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