I'm never in one place

[hammerandsaw]

Yesterday morning, I came downstairs to my kid playing Roblox while listening to a song. It was a song I hadn't heard in nearly 20 years. It was my dad's favorite song to play on guitar. I'd actually never heard the original before. The Wanderer by Dion. Apparently it was originally meant to be in Fallout 4, before Dion discovered what the game was about and withdrew the license. I never heard it as part of the game, but it stuck around on some unofficial fan playlists, which my child was listening to, and which happened to be at that exact part when I walked into the study. The incredible confluence of events that conspired to me, half-asleep, humming along to my dad's favorite song, before I regained consciousness enough to realize my autopilot was decades out of date, had me nearly in tears. I love that he so clearly belongs in my family. I love that somehow, despite sharing no genetic overlap, he inherited traits like the same favorite song, from a man he never met who died when he was a baby. His footsteps sound like my younger brother's. His rebellious streak leads him to shout the exact words I used to shout at my own parents. His jokes are ones that my dad would laugh hysterically at.

I don't believe everything happens for a reason. I gave up on that a long time ago, because it seemed cruel to believe some higher plan decided my life would include this much agony. But if there is a reason, it was this. I am the parent that this kid desperately needed, and I would not have been, if I hadn't had those experiences.

Have some pictures of overly dramatic trees: