Today I learnt something from my 9 year old. It’s my dads 70th birthday soon, so we want to give him memorable experience. Something that we can all remember, right Maybe not.
We want to either take him away to a unique lodge or a fancy hotel. Or organise a good old fashioned knees up with all of his friends (and he has a LOT of friends!) All over the world.
He says ‘no I don’t want to do that! I don’t want to have a party and celebrate.’
We say ‘what do you mean?’ What are you thinking?
He says ‘I just want a sociable weekend with the family.’
Bearing in mind that actually means 18 people!
Finding a place for that number is no easy task. I finally find one that most of us actually like and we can see ourselves staying there. Fabulous!
Maybe not
Everyone has their own issue.
“We can only stay one night”
“We can’t afford it”
“We have something else on”
Blah blah blah…
At this point I am done with doing the research. So my dad loses faith and says ‘no one is going to come so I don’t want to do anything. Maybe just a dinner with the family.’
‘What?’ We say. ‘You can’t just give up! We must do something.’
Back to Square One
And here is the lesson.
At breakfast my 9 year old son pipes up and says:
‘We really need to do something special for Nana because we don’t know when he going to ‘go’’
And he makes a face like a zombie.
You know- head to the side, eyes rolled up to the sky and tongue hanging out.
Well there you go… He said it!
I say ‘wow, wise words, my little fella.’
That was it. The moment when I realised the purpose of life. The short time we are given to be here.
So many of us just coast through life, then something major happens to us or to someone you love and you question yourself ‘is this it? Is this all I am capable of?’
Why wait? Why wait for that moment to WAKE UP?
- So take chances
- Date someone totally wrong for you
- Spend money on things you love
- Be random
- Be weird
- Laugh out loud until your belly hurts
- Cry
- Apologise
- Tell someone you love them
- Live life
You don’t know when you are going to ‘go’ so live life to the fullest because it only happens once. It’s the only way!
