Coffee and "man" talks

Today I sat with my father in his backyard, while we drank coffee and talked for 2 hours. This is something that has never occurred before. We have never really been close in the past, for many reasons. He just retired a couple months ago and since I am a stay at home dad/student I have more time. Also I have found that since transitioning, even though we were never really close that I am more comfortable talking to him now that my mother. Now I still love her but the way I see the world is changing, as well as how I am interacting with it. Really there are just lots of reasons why this shift is occurring. Also practically he just lives a couple miles away and she lives an hour away. Either way it was nice to sit in the back yard where my grandmother was born and raised, and where there is so much family history and talk. I had something serious to talk about with him but we also talked politics and various other "man" things as my partner calls them. He is a vietnam vet so we talked a little military stuff (which is new we never really do that, in any kind of way that is more deep and honest). We talked about how I feel about what happened with that. All kinds of things, it was a cool experience and I hope we have more of them. I never in a million years expected this to happen, and I know some of it is related to my transition because he feels more comfortable with me now. It is in part related to a lot of growth I have gone through in my transition as well, and through that process being able to really forgive and move on from a lot. I think that is especially true as I myself have dealt with a lot of negative things as a result of this process. I have grown in my ability to really accept and let go of a lot of negative things around me, and see people for people regardless of their faults (well I continue to try anyway). I have been judged so much, and had many hurtful things said to me through out the last year that I have realized the power of acceptance and forgiveness on a new level. All that to say I feel like this was a small gift my transition is giving me, and a very unexpected one but one I am deeply grateful for.