Tick, Tick, Tick, A Life Lesson.....

I sit in a isolated room waiting for the opportunity to go home from my annual training.  Yesterday as my plane got brought back to the ground and I was letting Jetona know of my current situation, she informed me that my father has to go back into surgery, yet again.  It's his heart.  Makes me question what is truly wrong with such a man.  I sat in silence and held back my true emotions because I did not feel like being bothered by all those around me with questions of what is wrong?  It'll be okays.  Etc.  I just wanted to sit in silence for a few moments. 
As one of my earliest post explained my father is my hero.  He was the one who helped shape me into the man I am today.  While I sit 3,000 miles away I find out that he is not as well as he thinks.  I feel helpless that  I can not help him during this time in his life.  I know that he wouldn't want it any other way as he would want me on the trip, etc. 

Here Is My Life Lesson:

I view my dad as a wealthy man.  He's rich.  I do not measure my dad in terms of worldly possessions, the number of friends his has, the money in his bank account, etc.  I measure my father's worth in the values and morals that he taught me, the numerous sacrifices that he made for me growing up, those father-son pep talks, the value of hard work, being a provider, etc.  However, over the past few months I think he gave me the greatest gift of all.  THE KNOWLEDGE THAT WORKING HARD ALL YOUR LIFE IS NOT WORTH IT.  I value the hard work and dedication my father has put into his work and farms.  No one can say that he isn't a hard worker.  However, its that lesson that he has passed on to me that I cherish more than anything. I have realized that at the end of the day money, honors, rewards, etc do not amount to squat when at the end of the day you have worked yourself to death, FOR WHAT?  To say that you have something someone else doesn't, to have to the new toy, to provide just a little more for your family.  It is through this bout of struggles that I have found the truest meaning of the work/life balance.  I once had a teacher tell me that he got into teaching not for the money but for the time. 
After watching my father battle these last weeks and months I realize that time is the one thing we can never get any more of, we can't buy it, can't get more of it by wishing for it, etc. Time is elusive, it comes, it goes, sometime is passes fast, sometimes it passes slow, but when its gone, well its gone.  My friends, my family, as time goes on it waits for no one. It does not care about what you have or haven't done, what you have or do not have.  Time will continue to pass us by, tick tick tick.  Old Father Time is taking moments off our lives daily. I have a task for you.  Look at your life, what are you missing out on that you could be doing, places you could be going, or how about time you could be spending with that special someone(s) in your life.  I task you to make some time for yourself this week, make sometime for someone in your life that means more to you than anything else in this world.  Do not let time pass you by, because when its gone, its gone.  Tick, Tick, Tick...