Every day our youngest son reminds us how many days are left on the calendar. Thirty days from today we say good-bye. My wife and I can't believe how time seems to accelerate as we approach our son's departure date. Raising a family is similar to raising butterflies. I remember the caterpillar stage and the cocoon stage like it was yesterday. God granted us temporary custody of our children but I always knew who they really belonged to. I always knew my role was to help our children discover they are born to fly. Soon, the jar will be empty.
I will never forget what it was like to live through a wildfire. We had minutes to evacuate. We grabbed our kids, our pets, our love letters and our photo albums. Others were critical of our failure to remember important documents, like our mortgage papers. It was in that critical moment that I realized what my priorities are... love, family and memories. I know my jar will never be empty. Never. I'm a blessed man to know what love is and to know what it's like to be a husband and father. It's captured in every stage of our children's lives from birth to today. It's expressed in thousands of love letters, over 5,000, my wife and I wrote to each other when we were raising butterflies.
Remember to savor every day. Live in the moment. And don't be afraid to let go, especially when it comes to butterflies. They are born to fly.
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