Yours Was the First Face That I Saw

I remember a framed knit wall hanging from a place and time in my childhood that read, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.” As a youngster, I often pondered this phrase while admiring the filigree and flowers that flowed around it, though I never grasped its true intention. Actually, it didn’t make sense to me, or, at least at that age, I couldn’t make sense of it.

This month we are celebrating love, and often times a new love, whether human or hobby, inspires a feeling like we just woke up; it creates a sensation punctuated by the palpability that we entered a new reality that previously appeared out of reach or unimaginable.

The Bright Eyes song “The first day of my life” earns it’s way onto our play list as a reflection on the sensation of falling in love, the journey’s we’ve shared with our life companion, and the need we have to continue our times with them, whatever the road may bring.

It’s a song that indulges those warm, mushy, and often lost-in-the shuffle feelings that keep a couple connected in times of chaos.

[sws_blockquote_endquote align=”left” cite=”” quotestyle=”style04″] “So, I thought I’d let you know. That these things take forever I especially am slow. But I realize that I need you.” [/sws_blockquote_endquote]

Of course, it’s easy to stumble and get lost in the confusion that life with a family brings. We often misplace the moments that led us to be with the one person who loves us, and we love, the most. While listening to this song I can’t help but wander off in a daydream of pre-kid vacations and other times that helped mark our hearts indelibly with tree carved initials.

Perhaps, I will learn to knit, and fashion this phrase of old on new material as a reminder that each day we wake there is the potential to be touched by an individual or situation that rouses us from our sleep.

Or, I could design a new statement “Remember the first days of your life, and the ones who are there with you.”

I’ll do both, side-by-side, as a reminder of the love we have, and the potential it creates as we wake each day.

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Andrew Meyer

Andrew Meyer is a Special Education teacher from Madison, Wisconsin, whose wife’s job relocation changed their family roles and physical location. He's now a stay-at-home dad in Madison, Alabama, to two awesomely creative, sometimes challenging, and mostly sweet five and two-year-old girls who fill his days, nights, and in-between spaces. When with or without them, he writes, works-out, wonders, wishes he wouldn’t worry, wrestles with his wife’s commitment to her job, and listens to music. You can also find him at www.papasense.wordpress.com, on Twitter @papasense, and Facebook.