The Ultimate Gift

The Ultimate Gift

This past week my family had the opportunity to go on a trip to a place I’ve always wanted to visit. As a young girl, I remember dreams of visiting a paradise where palm trees grew coconuts and everywhere you looked, the ocean was within view—or at the very least close enough to smell. I’ve always wanted to go to Hawai’i, but didn’t actually do it until my own kids are nearing adulthood.

My husband’s mother, Carol, had a similar dream. She always wanted to go to Hawai’i, and had big plans for her retirement. Unfortunately, she died before she got to make the trip she’d been dreaming of all her life.

One of the lessons I’ve learned through her untimely passing is that I should never put off the dreams that are most important to me. If you want something badly enough, generally you can find a way to get it, even if it requires some degree of sacrifice in other areas. Then, along the way, there are hundreds of other lessons to be learned, and other experiences to be had. This is what makes up our mortal life and the growth of our spiritual strength. Not to mention the creation of memories you’ll carry with you forever.

If you think about it, the same thinking applies to our personal dreams and aspirations as well. Like my dream of writing and becoming a bestselling author. But that’s another blog.

How can we deny ourselves this growth? These memories? I challenge you all to go after what you want most in life and to find a way to do that thing that so draws you. Never put off the things you love or desire, hoping that tomorrow opportunity will fall in your lap. Do the thing that drives you because sometimes, tomorrow doesn’t come.

This was the type of thinking that brought us to one of the islands I’ve always dreamed of visiting, and what made us decide to take the whole family as a Christmas gift. It was expensive, and the kids missed a week of school, and we came home to the depressing cold and snow and icky, yucky Utah inversion air. But the only thing we’ll ever regret is that our time there passed so quickly. And that we didn’t take two thousand pictures instead of one thousand.

The whole experience reminded me how important it is to give our children time, experience, and love. These are the gifts that will never break, wear out, or be forgotten. It is the ultimate gift of family.

Live for today, plan for tomorrow, learn from yesterday, then let it go. Now, go out and do something you’ve always wanted to do, but have been putting off. You won’t be sorry.

**By the way, though I had several entries to my current contest, no one actually guessed the right name. So…I’m extending the deadline until midnight, Friday, January 22nd, and giving everyone who already guessed the opportunity to guess again. If at some point in the past I happened to tell you my first name, go ahead and throw it out there, as long as I told you the answer before December, 2009. If you have that kind of memory, you should be rewarded. Please remember, close family members do not get to enter this contest. Sorry! (By the way, the prize is from Hawai’i.)