Get Out!

It’s a rare nice day outside here in Seattle. Don’t sit there and read this stuff. Get outside and play! If you don’t have kids, go outside and be a kid for a while. If you have kids, go outside and be a kid with your kids.

One of the unfortunate lessons I learned with everything that happened to me last year and I was taken away from my family so suddenly was that you never know when you won’t have the chance to be a part of your children’s memories. It happened unexpectedly and I never would have anticipated that such a thing would have happened to me. So, the point is that you never know when you'll lose those chances to be a part of their lives and share their joy, you'll never know when you've run out of nice days to spend outside with them. You also never know when they’ll suddenly grow up before your eyes.

See, I wasn’t the only person hurt and changed by the experience. My oldest child, 11 at the time, grew up too quick and learned lessons I had hoped would wait a while longer or that he wouldn't have learned at all. We still have fun together, but it’s different now, he’s more wary and suspicious of the world instead of curious about it and has a lot of anger about what those people did to me. I wished I would have had more time to play with the child he was... but he's now a young man and we'll have to be be content with the times we did have at that stage of his life and the times we have ahead of us.

So, I don’t take those chances for granted anymore. While my oldest is no longer interested in going to the park with his old man, my 8 year old and I are going to go play now and make some good memories to share…

I suggest you do the same with the ones you love.