One beautiful fall afternoon on a Wednesday, my wife invited me to go with her and the grandchildren to feed the ducks at a nearby lake. I had no scheduled appointments, no pending issues, and basically no reason to keep me from going. So we found some stale bread, loaded up the grandkids, and headed for the lake. This lake is about a half hour from our home (which also houses my office), and about halfway there I started to feel uncomfortable. How could I just leave the office in the middle of Wednesday afternoon and go for a leisurely unplanned trip to the lake? What customer was I neglecting? What other tasks were going undone? Then real panic set in as we turned into the parking area at the lake. No cell phone coverage! It was the middle of the week on a workday, and I was out of touch with my customers. They might call and get voicemail!!
I got out of the car and walked with my wife and my two grandkids over to the lake. They started to feed the ducks. Grandmama was happy. The grandchildren were laughing. The ducks were enjoying the snack, and the Granddaddy of all granddaddies was ….. miserable. Years of programming. You just don’t take off in the middle of the week and go feed ducks!!! You are being irresponsible! What if you miss a key phone call! You should be at work! It’s 1:30 PM on a workday! Yada Yada Yada.
Then I hear the voice of my five-year old grandson asking “Granddaddy, are you going feed the ducks?” I did.
Where are you when you are not where you are, and what are you missing in your life by not being present?
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