Maybe it’s true that no day can be absolutely perfect, but today (Sunday, April 25) came as close as any I can remember. The day started with sleeping in until 9:00am and waking up beside my beautiful bride of nearly 25 years. And it kept getting better and better after that.
After eating a delicious slice of chocolate cake for breakfast, I joined Bethany on the front patio where we sipped coffee and enjoyed a gorgeous Missouri morning. While sitting in our matching rocking chairs, we listened to the Allman Brothers Band on my portable Bluetooth speaker and watched a pair of red-tailed hawks feed their nestlings in a tree in our woods.
Soon we were joined by Alex, Sarah, and our grandbaby Freya who loves being outside as much as the rest of her family does. After soaking up some soul-warming sunshine, we relocated to the screened-in gazebo on the back deck for some shade and some more fresh air. All that fresh air would eventually make for one sleepy baby—and Pop—so we made our way back inside for lunch, naps, and Cardinals baseball on TV.
I managed to keep my eyes open for most of the ballgame, although I may have missed an inning or two. Nevertheless, it proved to be a great contest, with outfielder Tyler O’Neill’s two home runs helping lift the Redbirds to a series sweep of the Reds.
After Freya woke up from her nap, the whole family piled into Bethany’s new-to-us Chevy Traverse and headed to Rock Bridge State Park. With a high temperature of 72 degrees, it was ideal weather for the seven of us to explore Devil’s Ice Box and Connor’s Cave and hike the 1.5-mile Sinkhole Trail. As we walked, we reminisced about our previous visits to the park. Three of those occasions were when our children were on school field trips. Bethany accompanied Alex and Tiana on their excursions, and I went with Truman on his. We recalled that both Alex and Tiana had fallen into the water during their field trips. Alex had been so thoroughly saturated that I had to bring him a change of clothing. Our family has been making great memories at Rock Bridge for a long time.
By the time we got back to the vehicle Sunday afternoon, everybody was pretty worn out, so we decided to refresh ourselves with milkshakes from Sonic. By the time we got to Sonic, we realized that it was dinner time, so we ordered enough food and milkshakes to feed our small army and headed to Grandma Glee’s house to eat.
Glee was happy to have food delivered, but she was even happier to have a visit from her family. A few weeks ago, she suffered a pretty serious stroke, the effects of which she is still dealing with. She’s improved a great deal since she first visited the hospital, and we are all so thankful that she is feeling well enough to be back in the comfort of her own home as she continues to recover.
The clot that caused Glee’s stroke is in a major blood vessel in her brain, and doctors determined that it is too risky to try to remove it. They hope that the blood thinners she is taking will reduce the blockage over time, and we are optimistic that the improvement in her condition is proof that the plan is working.
Glee told Bethany that she worries that the clot is a “ticking time bomb” in her brain. Bethany assured her that if her doctors believed that, then they would have taken more aggressive action. Then something very profound occurred to me. We should all live our lives as if we have a ticking time bomb in our brains.
Life is fragile and precious, and tomorrow is not promised to any of us. If we were to live our lives as if today could be our last day on Earth, then surely we wouldn’t waste another minute procrastinating or being angry or taking life for granted.
After dinner with Grandma Glee, we headed back home. I watched a fantastic extra-inning game between the Padres and Dodgers on TV while Bethany and Freya slept beside me and the rest of our crew played video games together downstairs. When the games were over and the kids had gone to bed, I sat down to write about this perfect day.
It was a day filled with laughter. It was a day filled with baseball. It was a day spent in nature. It was a day spent with family. It was a day of coffee and rocking chairs, babies and sunshine, Grandmas and milkshakes. It was a ticking time bomb kind of day, and if I’m lucky enough to wake up tomorrow, then I’m going to make it a ticking time bomb kind of day, too.
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