Children only stay little for a short period of time, so they need as much salt as possible while they are still young! Salt is one of the oldest preservatives known to man, so why not start early? Take them to the beach as often as possible!
I recall a discussion with my great grandmother quite a few decades back. It ended with her telling me “If you don’t have to grow up, don’t do it!” She was a young soul in an aging body who knew the value of a child’s heart full of curiosity and wonder. In her wanderings, she had acquired vast amounts of wisdom, and if she told me to stay young, then she must have known what she was talking about! And so I have…though the lines in my face may beg to differ, I can still keep up with my young grand kids!
The above photo sits on my desk at work, and any time I feel a bit overwhelmed, I stare into it. It brings back that day on the beach, the smell of salt water, the sound of waves hitting the beach, and of children laughing. It gets me back in balance, and I am able to return to my work refocused. As I have “climbed the corporate ladder” I have started realizing that the truly important things in life have started taking a back seat to corporate numbers and balance sheets. Those things, that while supportive in the here and now, will still be here tomorrow and the day after, and the day after that. Big business has a way of carrying on generation after generation. People, however, do not. We have a set time in this space called life. No cycle is repeated. Each quarter while contributing to growth, there is opportunity for lost moments, a child cutting their first tooth, speaking their first word, developing a personality. We look back on all that is gone, and then at the pile of papers and reconfigured spreadsheets on our desk and wonder where time has gone. I have known people that, once they retired, their health went downhill, and they were gone before their first full year. Was it worth it? Who knows how these people felt, but to those of us who lost them, no, it was not.
I missed my high school graduation because I was scared to request time off from work to attend the graduation ceremony practice. “Important” work, at a company that no longer even exists today. Go figure. Was the trade worth it? Looking back, not so much, but in the moment, I didn’t realize there was a choice. Today I know there is a choice, and I choose to be present. I choose to be available. I choose to create opportunities. I choose to share. I choose to live, at last!
