The Gift of Time

"Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”
—Simone Weil

He wakes up at 5:30 in the morning to build with Legos or answer questions about time travel. He coaches soccer and creates nearly perfect ballet buns. He helps with the construction of cardboard robots and works through complex chess exercises. This past school year, he helped to organize a STEM (science-technology-engineering-math) club at the elementary school. He took four afternoons off from work to help students build bridges out of drinking draws. Just this past week he took another three afternoons to design and build stone walls—and then to knock them down—with the three second grade classes. While he certainly does a great deal to provide material things for our children, what they appreciate most is their father’s attention, his daily gift of time.

This evening, my children made cards and wrapped gifts and arranged the schedule for the Father’s Day festivities tomorrow morning. Before bed, they ran their ideas by me—cook dad a special breakfast, then give him his gifts to unwrap. “And then at the end of it all,” my daughter said, “We’re going to say, ‘Your best present is impossible to wrap because that present is love.’”