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Fear of falling

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Fear of falling

New blog series

Hanna Perkins is introducing a new series of blog posts that share perspectives of “encore parent” Eric Coble.

After raising two children to adulthood, he and his wife adopted a young child, known in these posts as Lightning Bug to maintain her privacy. These essays have originally appeared elsewhere and have been reformatted and republished with Coble’s permission. They generally appear in the order in which he first wrote them.

Coble, who lives in the Cleveland area, is a Tony-, Emmy-, and Pulitzer-nominated playwright and screenwriter. His work has appeared on Broadway and in major theaters across the US and on six continents.

Today marks three years since Lightning Bug arrived on the planet.

A father's fear of falling

Photo courtesy of Eric Coble

Last night we were walking to the store and, as she frequently does when we walk together down the sidewalk, she suddenly breaks into a run, just for the joy of running.

And she’s been doing this “moving on two legs” thing for over a year now, but she does still fall occasionally when she’s going full tilt, with the cut knees, scraped hands, and wailing carry-homes to show for it. So when I see her take off ahead of me my mind’s eye flashes to the worst and my I want to call out to her “No running! Walk!”

That’s not who she wants to be.
And not who I want her to be.

So I bite my tongue and let her charge forward, knowing this is the only way she’ll figure it all out. Because while there will be more pain, most of the time there will just be the joy of living in a body. And what is living if not learning that?

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