Gone In A Flash

This story arrived in my email this morning and it moved me to tears I knew I just had to share this with all of you amazing bloggers. Enjoy!

GONE IN A FLASH
Michael Smith

The sun dropped below the horizon. The sky turned dark. The first stars of the night began to shine.

It was the peak night for the Perseids meteor shower. We gathered our grandchildren in the backyard. Some sat in chairs and others stretched out on blankets. No street lights were nearby to hinder our view.

"There's one!" Seth, the oldest yelled.

"I missed it!" I whined.

"There's another one!" Josh yelled.

"I saw it!" Ginny and I said together as a streak of dust burned across the sky and faded into nothing. The youngest, Benny, sat in a chair beside me.

"Are you watching, Ben?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Did you see that last one?"

"No!" He sighed. "I missed it."

"Then you weren't watching, were you?"

We cheered and pointed each time a meteor lit the night sky.

"Poppa Mike?" Benny asked.

"Yes, Ben?"

"Clara is the loneliest train, you know?"

I had no idea what Benny was talking about or where the thought came from, so I just played along. "Is that so?" I asked.

"Uh huh?"

"Why is she lonely?"

"She has a boyfriend you know." He paused.

"But she's still lonely?"

"Yeah."

Another meteor made a white slash in the night sky. "Wow! Did you see it, Ben?"

"No, I missed it again."

A few weeks later, a lightning storm slowly crawled across the western sky. We watched the bolts of lightning streak diagonally from north-to-south. It was a spectacular display of nature, one we safely watched from a distance.

"Wow! Did you see that one boys?" I asked my grandsons.

"No! We missed it again."

"Guys, you have to focus, these things happen fast. If you don't focus, you'll miss them."

Later that night, after the boys went to bed, I sat out on the deck while Ginny, her daughter, Heather, and her son-in-law, Nathan, watched a show on TV. They laughed each time I screamed, "WOW! That was a good one."

Alone with my thoughts and the lightning, I remembered the meteor shower. The lightning was the same. The flashes of light were gone in the blink of an eye. I asked myself, "Mike, how many of life's meteors and lightning bolts have you missed because you weren't paying attention?"

I had no answer to the question, for if I knew, then I wouldn't have missed them. How many times have I come home from work too wrapped in my own thoughts and missed those "daddy's home" smiles of my children? Those little smiles are lost forever, as I walked right by them.

How many opportunities did I miss to praise my wife or my children? How many chances to say, "I love you" to my wife did I miss?

I made a pledge that night to pay more attention to those around me. When I arrive home from work, work stays at work and my attention is on my family, because those opportunities -- those
streaks of light -- don't last long.

They're gone in a flash.

Smooth Sailing Down Memory Lane

Since most of you read my preliminary post of getting to the beach I thought I would share with you all kinds of things we did along the way and highlight it more with pictures than with text. We woke up and got things ready at a casual pace since it takes me a little bit more time than I would like to get ready I asked my family to not rush. We had all day since the beach closes at 10pm.

We ended up leaving once we packed up the car with food, drinks, beach chairs, boogie boards, towels and beach toys at around 12pm. We stopped along the way to gas up and eat at Jack in the Box. Their Mango tea is something to die for. It is that good plus with almost a 2 hour drive ahead of us, it was something to make the drive go by much easier.

For some reason whenever we take a trip to the beach I tend to be a bit nostalgic and remember when I used to live close to the beach. So close that I could ride my bike there as a kid. It just brought back fond memories. My parents sold that house when I was 7.

For some reason, I could always remember our old address 9432 Breakwater Circle and hubby was nice enough to indulge me and stop by and see if it was still there.

So as you can see, it still exists. Three bedrooms and two baths this house brought back block parties on our cul-de-sac, best friends living across the street and so much more.

Next stop I was able to navigate by memory, a 7-11 just outside on the corner if my memory served us correct and you know what?

Yup its still there right where I left it. I had to get a picture. I kept telling hubby as he was taking the picture and people started to look, Hey I grew up at this 7-11. It's where I returned all the coke bottles we found and could bring them right back to the store where they would redeem them and then we would buy candy and walk back home.

Yup that's right I had my kids shopping at the same 7-11 and candy counter I did when I was a kid only a whole lot younger. Ah memories!

Next we headed to the beach, our original destination. I counted from our house, it was only three blocks away. Then we had a slight disagreement in the car about why we sold that house? I explained to both of my daughters that had my parents not, it would be doubtful that either of them would be sitting right where they are. Enough said.

So $ 10.00 for all day parking and we set up our camp after hiking some 5 minutes just to get to the water. It is a long way, and one of the disadvantages in heading to Huntington. Once you make it to the water, it's beautiful but walking across all the sand is really hard to do with all your hands full.

SO I grab my book that I am reviewing for Thomas Nelson and I can tell you, great book! I will be blogging about it when I am done.

Kailee gives boogie boarding a try and this is where she spends most of her time.

Caitlyn decides to try it but takes Grimace along for a quick ride as well.


It looks like Kailee is done riding for today, she is getting cold.



Hubby and I stop and pose for a picture, under our umbrella since the wind was super cold and very windy.


Caitlyn asked if I could take a picture of her and Kailee. How could I not? It might be one of those rare opportunities that I can't pass up.



Kailee goes searching for shells to take home.



Steve and I get a picture at the beach so I can start posting pictures of me instead of always being the one taking them.


Cait is posing with seaweed from the ocean floor.



So we all decide to pack it up and head home.

On the way home, I showed my kids where I had my first, non fast food real job. Don Jose's Mexican Restaurant, the Original. We were all sandy and salty and decided to pass on eating here.


I showed them where I went to elementary school as a child and got to learn sign language because we shared school grounds with a deaf school next door. That's right I was a Taft Tiger!


Last place we stopped was the house I grew up in after we moved from Huntington Beach to this place in Santa Ana. When I asked my mom this morning why we ever sold our old house at the beach she said it was too small. This one had 4 bedrooms and 2 baths. I still miss the beach house. The temperatures there was beautiful and amazing ocean breezes all day. I mean three blocks to walk to the beach???

To top it all off once we got home and took showers to rinse the beach and sand off was that the Persied Meteor shower was last night between 12 midnight and 5am this morning. So at 12 midnight, Steve and I got lawn chairs out that reclined back all the way and put them on our front lawn and sat back and just watched the night sky for the wonders to begin.

It was amazing, it was so cool and dark out since we live in the desert we don't have the lights from the city ruining our view of the stars and in 30 minutes we saw over 7 shooting stars. Kailee had never seen one before and it was so exciting for her to try and capture them before they faded out. The Persied Meteor Shower comes every August around this time and is so reliable it guarantees about 80 meteors an hour. We all called it a night after about an hour.

So in keeping with the perspective to live your life to the fullest, not just as a kid, but as an adult, I think we had an amazing day.