Generations

22 1/2 years ago, I ate a bowl of Frosted Flakes and stayed home. I wasn't feeling well, I said. The next day, it was another excuse and then I just stopped going to football practice. I was small and slow so I wouldn't have made the team anyway, I said. I was 99 lbs and the minimum was 100 lbs, I said. The next year, I said I'd never make it on the team because I hadn't played the year before. And so it went for 4 years; I never played although playing football was my biggest dream. I never even watched a game.

On Friday night, we, along with most of the town, watched the two local high schools go at it in the first round of the CCS playoffs. Our nephew was promoted from JV for the playoffs and we were so proud to see him out on the field. Prior to his freshman year, he had never played football, but he decided he wanted to play and 2 years later he's a star on defense. Earlier this year he had a severe injury completed unrelated to football; most of us were very doubtful that he would play this year, if ever again. But here he is, playing for the varsity after playing every game this year.

Today, we moved Staci's grandparents into an assisted-living home. This move is necessary and it's going to be a much better situation for them. Over the past several years, they've experienced the typical maladies of the typical 80+ year old but they haven't fought it. They haven't worked to improve their lives, they have existed. Although it was quite sad to see this change in their lives, it was even harder to wonder how their lives would be better off if they had exercised or socialized more.

I'm sure their "decision" was much like mine that day, just one bad excuse in an otherwise make-all-the-right-decisions kind of day. Fear of failure, fear of success, or just fear of pain - it doesn't matter which one, it just matters that we gave into it and it kept us from accomplishing our goals and dreams. As I realize these similariites and compare them to the joy of seeing our nephew push past this same fear and accomplish so much, I am going to some serious dreaming and goal-setting over the next few days and weeks and promise that nothing is going to keep myself or my family from living life to the fullest. If I do one day end up living in a room where assistance is required to help me live, it will only be because I have lived every second of every day to its fullest and my body is simply unable to keep up with my dreams.