Don't Waste Your Time on Everest

Don’t Waste Your Time On Everest

A difficult night tonight as I lay awake flooded with memories of my dad. I lay there still as my mind, body and heart laboriously sift through each passing thought. It’s like in a movie when the scene gets kind of blurry and there are a series of memories flashing before the character…Moments we may not quite be able to make out, but moments that are clearly important and precious. When I have moments like this I feel an urgency to get to a pen and paper to capture it all for fear it may never return.

The thoughts went something like this….I wish so badly he was here to see Asher and Nolan; to see them growing up and enjoying them at least half as much as I do. Memory fades back to May 26, 2010...picking my dad up at the airport the day before the boys were born. I was just as happy then that he was going to share this time with us as I am now. Flash forward to the following Friday as he walked back into my bedroom as I slept the new mommy sleep (in some crazy position, two eyes open, but still somehow ‘sleeping’) and told me goodbye and that he would be back in September for my birthday and that he loved me. I was so looking forward to him coming back in September….

As I’ve shared with you before, my dad’s sudden and horrific death changed me…mostly for the better. That, in conjunction with becoming a mother to two amazing little guys suddenly gave me this new found value and appreciation for life that I may not have ever otherwise understood.

So, what’s with the title? “Don’t Waste Your Time on Everest!” When my dad died I didn’t once think I wish we could’ve gone to sky diving. I wish we could’ve hiked across the country. I wish we could’ve traveled across the world. I wish we could’ve climbed Everest. No. That’s not what’s important. What’s important is that my dad knew he was the apple of my eye. He was the courage that was sometimes needed, the laughter that my have been lost, the confidence that often withered, the sunshine amongst the clouds and the fun to fill a room. And I was and will forever be that little girl that just needed and loved her Daddy…and he knew it!

Here’s my point….Don’t waste your life away wishing you could “climb your everest” instead invest the time in your loved ones now. Make sure you spend each simple and maybe even mundane day making sure they know what you mean to them. It will be the greatest gift you could ever give them. Your ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’ is now…and it’s not Everest…