Next Practices

I got a call Thursday night from my Dad. He asked me about my planned trip to China next month and then asked if I could stay at their farm for a week in May to look after the place, the horse and the cattle while they are gone. I said that I would and asked where they are going. He informed me they had just booked a Caribbean cruise.

It has been one of my Mom’s lifelong wishes to go on a Caribbean cruise. In fact, my wife and I had talked about the possibility of trying to convince them to go together with us on one next Christmas to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary Dec. 24. But they beat us to the punch and are planning it themselves for May. I could not be happier for them.

What makes this an incredible act of love and kindness from my Dad is that he is pretty much scared of being on the water since he never really learned how to swim well. But with Mom at 78 and Dad at 77, he told me when he called that you never know when you’ll wake up one day and something will have happened to keep you from doing what you’ve always wanted to do, so you’d better do it now.

Normally, my visits to the farm are great not just because it’s the farm I grew up on, but because it’s time spent with Mom and Dad. In May, however, I’ll have a huge smile on my face while I’m there knowing that they are crossing off a very big thing from my Mom’s bucket list.

More power to them.

Leap year lesson #61 is Do things while you can.