Family: Isn't It About Time?
Today I went over to the bookstore on campus to return something. As I parked and got out of the car, I was thinking about one of my business classes and my homework in it. To be honest, I love my business classes and thinking about what I'm learning. It excites me for my major and future career, so I think about it a lot. As strange as it may sound, thinking about business strategies, how to analyze financial statements, extracting pertinent information from excel pivot tables and charts, and such are all things I love getting into and doing.
These were the kind of things I was thinking about as I got out of my car. However, as I walked toward the Wilkinson Center, where the bookstore is located, I looked in front of me and saw a dad with his son, who looked to be about a year old, on his shoulders. He was running and skipping on the sidewalk; he had another son and a daughter, each about four and six years old, follow him. They ran behind their dad to keep up with him, laughing as they went.
Instantly, my mind dropped all thoughts of my classes and I silently observed the family (the mom was behind the older kids, walking); I couldn't help but smile to myself at the sight. Another guy walked passed them and I noticed him smile to himself as well. It was good to see that.
I love college life and the BYU campus. I enjoy the friendships my roommates and I have. I love learning the things I'm learning in my classes and like the challenge of keeping my grades up. The one thing I don't like about it all, however, is that it's easy for priorities to get switched around and forget what the overall aim really is. Family is what it's all about! Spending my life with my best friend. Being a dad. Spoiling my wife. Having water-gun fights with my kids in the front yard. Family vacations. Laughing. Crying. Serving. Loving. Bringing life into the world. Showing my kids how to love their mom. Heartaches. Disappointments. Learning. My family making me proud. Happy surprises. Anniversaries. Helping my kids pick flowers for their mom. Showing my wife how much I love her. Dancing with my daughters. Playing football with my sons. Hearing my wife tell me she's proud of me. Watching my children grow and progress in the gospel and in other areas of their lives. And so many other fond future memories!
Watching this dad have fun with his kids put things back into perspective. Suddenly, my college classes didn't seem as important as I had made them out to be. Seeing this family go by caused a familiar yearning from deep within to resurface. It was a great reminder of why I'm really here, in college, and in this life. That's a stage of my life I definitely look forward to!
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quotes
- "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." (Ferris Bueller)
- "That's where the truth comes from, ladies and gentlemen...the gut. Do you know you have more nerve endings in your stomach than in your head? Look it up. Now, somebody's gonna say, 'I did look that up, and it's wrong.' Well, mister, that's because you looked it up in a book. Next time, try looking it up in your gut. I did, and my gut tells me that's how our nervous system works...The 'truthiness' is, anyone can read the news to you. I promise to feel the news at you." (Stephen T. Colbert from "The Colbert Report")
- "The world is not a dangerous place because of the people who are evil--it is because of the people who do nothing about it." (Albert Einstein)
- "When King Lear dies in Act Five do you know what William Shakespeare has written? He's written, He Dies. That's all, nothing more. No fan fare, no metaphor, no brilliant final words. The culmination of the most influential work of the dramatic literature is, He Dies...And yet every time I read those two words I find myself overwhelmed with dysphoria. And I know its only natural to be sad, but not because of the words 'he dies,' but because of the life we saw prior to the words. I've lived all five of my acts, Mahoney, and I am not asking you to be happy that I must go. I'm only asking that you turn the page. Continue reading. And let the next story begin. And if anyone ever asks what became of me, you relay my life in all its wonder and end it with a simple and modest, he died." (Mr. Magorium from "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium")
- "Life is pain - we've got to scrape the joy from it every chance we get." (Rod from "Hot Rod")
come, thou fount of every blessing
Come, thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,
Mount of thy redeeming love.
Here I raise mine Ebeneezer;
Hither by thy help I'm come;
And I hope, by thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed his precious blood.
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness,like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for thy courts above.
Tune my heart to sing thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,
Mount of thy redeeming love.
Here I raise mine Ebeneezer;
Hither by thy help I'm come;
And I hope, by thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed his precious blood.
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness,like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for thy courts above.
O Captain My Captain by Walt Whitman
O Captain my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Falling cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up-for you the flag is flung for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths for you the shores
a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck,
You've fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and
done;
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Falling cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up-for you the flag is flung for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths for you the shores
a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck,
You've fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and
done;
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
2 comments:
you are going to the greatest husband and father someday, michael. really. :) you're future family is luckier than they know! love you bunches!
Michael, what a great post! I love how excited you are for your future family - and I'm excited to meet the lucky lady one day! :) You will be a great dad and husband...way to put things into perspective!
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