Non-parents may want to move on to the next post, ’cause this one’s a little ch-ch-cheesy.

I’ll make it short & sweet – my four year old daughter attended her first day of kindergarten today. I’m a proud papa, and I’m sort of blown away that I have a child who is now going to school. Seasoned parents are nodding their heads, while at the same time shaking them in a sort of “you have nooo idea what you have in store for you” way. It just keeps getting more and more interesting, folks, and I’m just underway…

Well, a couple of weeks ago, my girl had a sort of “graduation” ceremony at her YMCA preschool. Her class was referred to as the Sea Horses. As the Sea Horses shuffled through in a controlled-chaos single file to receive their cute little certificates, with their cute little caps on, I had this Bruce Cockburn song going through my head. It comes from a brilliant 1976 album called In the Falling Dark.

I count this and Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaw as two of my all time favorites. They soothe and calm me, and bring me to a good place when things seem a little jagged and confused.

The lyrics merit an appearance here (bolded by me):

Little seahorse
Swimming in a primal sea
Heartbeat like a
Leaf quaking in the breeze
I feel magic as coyote
In the middle of the moon-wild night

In the forge-fire time
Your mother glowed so bright
You were like a
Voice calling in the night
And I’m watching the curtain
Rising on a whole new set of dreams

The world is waiting
Like a Lake Superior gale
A locomotive
Racing along the rail.
It’ll sweep you away
But you know that you’re never alone

Little seahorse
Floating on a primal tide
Quickening like a
Spark in a haystack side
I already love you
And I don’t even know who you are

Nice eh? It’s enough to make a tough dad get a tad misty eyed. And that’s okay. Congrats kiddo – I have no earthly idea how I ever got along without you.

Bruce Cockburn – Little Sea Horse

Buy In the Falling Dark