UNITED STATES—It is NOT always easy to spend time with family. Sometimes you mesh well with some people, at other times you don’t mesh that well with others. With that said, this weekend I was placed in a difficult dilemma because of course it was Father’s Day. The problem is the fact that I work two jobs and I’m currently pursuing a doctorate degree. So in terms of open availability I have very little if anything. So I ended up spending some time with my father the day before during the 3 to 4 hours I had before work.
I purchased my dad a nice watch for Father’s Day (he loves collecting watches), we had lunch and spend time chatting about life. Then it hit me, my dad had noted he hadn’t seen me as much in recent months. I had not thought much about it because my dad rarely complains. However, it did hit me hard and I have been thinking about it ever since. There is more I need to do to spend time with family, particularly my parents and my siblings.
I cannot tell you the last time I saw, let alone spoke to my older brother. My other older brother I only hear from when he wants something, and the same applies with my younger brother. Yeah, I shouldn’t wait for them to reach out, sometimes I can just reach out to see how things are going and to catch up. The same with my parents, especially after the situation I explained last week involving my father, I just have to re-work my schedule some sort of way to make time even if I feel I don’t have it.
That extra hour or two I’m spending in the morning doing work, well it can wait. I should be picking up the phone and chatting with my dad just to make sure all is going well. The same applies for my mother, my brothers and my sisters. When it comes to family you just cannot make excuses, you find a way to carve out that time that is important so you don’t lose touch and have regrets in life people.
Time is the one thing that I believe is the most important thing in life. Why? Time is something you can never get back. Once that time is gone it is gone people. Father’s Day reminded me that time is precious, time is limited and that you never want to be left with that ‘what if.’ So I am making it a mission to call my dad and talk to him at least once a week, same with my mother and then attempt to gather my siblings and just break bread.
At times you can have multiple family members attempting to pull at you at the same time, and then you have to ask yourself what to do? Well if you can gather everyone and eat brunch, lunch and dinner with the entire family great. That may NOT always be the case depending on everyone’s schedule, but it gives you the best of the best. I’m starting to realize in life the older I get, that the materialistic things we put so much pressure on trying to find the perfect gift for a family member, it doesn’t matter.
They don’t care about those things even though they might hint at it. Its time they want from you; they want to spend time with you. Share laughs, share cries and just to be in your presence people. We don’t have all the time in the world, but you have time when you want to make it. Always make time for family because you ONLY have one family people. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.
