Take the Moment

I got a text from my mom the other day that had a picture of some fudge from a company on Mackinaw Island. She’d found a local shop in her small town in Florida that sells them. 

The significance of the picture was that about 11 years ago, my mom, my sister, my baby son and I went to Mackinaw Island, a lovely island in Northern Michigan you have to take a ferry to and there are no motorized vehicles, just horse drawn carriages and bicycles, and cute little shops including this fudge shop. My mom had always wanted to go, and I’d had the opportunity to visit when I lived in Michigan, so we’d planned this trip to go together.  We had an amazing weekend, even though we say in 7 hours of traffic driving back to Detroit to fly home and missed our flights. 

I’m sure I had my laptop in tow, and was slightly distracted and stressed out, working off an on through the vacation, as I did nearly every vacation for about 20 years. 

But this isn’t your average “don’t work on vacation” message.

It’s a GO, take the moment, even if it’s not perfect, even if you have to work through it.

Eleven years later we remember that fudge shop, and the carriage tour of the island we took, and the pizza shop with the best memories. 

Also this past month I had the chance to take my son, his friend and my son’s little brother to Florida to go fishing.  Little brother had asked me if I’d take him fishing because he’d never been.  (Same kid, I don’t fish.)  I immediately thought of a high school friend who runs fishing charters out of Tampa that I knew would make it a great experience for the kids.  So we went.  And I worked a lot.  And Titan caught his first fish.  I tear up every time I look at this picture knowing I had the opportunity to make a kid’s dream come true.  Even though I worked on this vacation.  He will never forget it, nor will I.

So, while you are working on getting to a place you can take a non-working vacation, don’t NOT take the moment.  They still mean something.  To you, and the people you are creating memories with.  Our loved ones don’t need perfection, they just need us.