Love your family now.

Who knows, they may be gone tomorrow.

Hopefully not.

Several months ago, I was looking at our holiday card list, and I was shocked by the fact that…

– several people had passed away.

– there were a few divorces.

– others I just simply lost touch with.

one of those names that I deleted from the holiday card list was my grandma.

She passed away last year at 101.

I’m so happy that my boys knew great-grandma 🙂

My wife’s mom, who the kids call “Baba”, which is short for Babushka (Russian Grandma).

She’s a wonderful lady, who lives with us several months of the year.  The rest of the year she’s freezing in Siberia 🙂

Sure, having an extra person in the house can be challenging at times, but the way I see it, there is WAYYYYYY more good than bad.

She’s super helpful on so many levels.

At times (many times), I take her for granted.  I try not to.

Being honest, I take lots of things for granted in my life.   I find it’s easy to do, when that person, place, or thing shows up every day.   It’s just part of the routine, until it’s not.

Baba left this morning back to Russia and there’s a void in the house.

When she’s here, we don’t talk much because of the language barrier, but there’s always an unspoken energy that fills the Vroman house.  A good energy.

When I take time to slow things down, I’ll consciously pause to think how grateful I am for her support. I try to acknowledge her for the immense love she provides to my boys.

My personal reflection this week is to love Baby, while I can.

This journey for us all will come to an end one day.

There will be a time when Baba doesn’t visit anymore, so I’m choosing to soak in these moments while I can.

I want to be conscious for all the good, and yes, the challenging also.

Give me the full human experience!

Who in your life would you be sad, if they were gone?

–

My boys have been playing a lot of Frisbee this week.

Several days ago, after dinner, we were outside tossing our glow-in-the-dark disc.

Over the next hour, 2 moments would stand out as significant.

One made me proud.

The other was enlightening.

The first happened when Tiger, who’s 10, was coaching his brother on how to catch and throw.

He challenged Ocean, who’s 5, to catch the Frisbee 4 times in-a-row without dropping it.

It took 15 minutes, but they did it.

In celebration, Tiger threw the Frisbee up in the air, ran to Ocean, picked him up and shouted, “We did it!  We did it”

Seeing my boys challenge each other, then persist, ultimately succeed and then celebrate their victory, made my smile a mile wide.

A few minutes later, I was about to throw the Frisbee to Tiger, when he shouts…

DAD, MAKE ME RUN!  *Here’s the video/moment it all happened — thanks to my amazing wife for capturing it! 

Tiger didn’t want to just stand there and catch the Frisbee.

It wasn’t challenging enough.

He wanted to find his edge.

He craved playing in the space of “almost”.

He didn’t just want to chase the Frisbee, he wanted to chase his human potential.

It was exhilarating for him to run the disc down, jump in the air, and just barely snag it with the tips of his fingers.

In THOSE moments, he’d yell, “YES!!!!!!  Did you see that?!”

We all need someone to make us run.

To toss the literal and metaphorical disc just out of reach — so we can push ourselves.

As fathers, how can we find those “Make Me Run” moments for our kids?

And looking in the mirror, who’s making you run?

Challenge yourself.

Challenge your kids.

Netflix isn’t going to make anyone run, but you can.