Yesterday, my son fell from a tree near the lake by our house, hit his head on multiple times and landed between two big boulders in the water. He quickly crawled out of the water as Laura and I ran to tend to him. He was breathing, nothing looked visibly wrong, but he had just fallen about 20 feet. I was scared, we were scared, he was soaked and in shock. Being about a mile from home and our car, I called a nearby friend, John, to drive us home so that we could rush to the nearest children's hospital. He is fine, bumped and bruised, tired and still sleeping as I write this.

Gravity, literally, doesn't care who you are or how prepared you might be, it will take you down. We have little control of gravity when it decides to take us for a ride. All we can do is sit back and watch as it moves us. It is what happens after the event that start to whiplash into focus. We can reflect on prevention of the situation (it's an accident and unpreventable) and we can examine life up to that and after. I am in the examine life before and after mode, because to my eyes and heart, I almost lost my son.

Given that life is a string of events, how can I utilize my time with him, with my family, in such a way that I am able to maximize that which I have? How is my life positioned in such a way that I can enjoy as much of my time with the people that I love AND with the time that I have with them, am I fully present?

I am going to concentrate on that last piece, focusing my attention on them and being as present as possible.

Time to be present, he's awake, sore, and hungry.

Be present with those that you love.

With energy,

Shelton