SUMMER 2005
Tom Smith
Director of Institutional Advancement
ide-swiped!
It was a beautiful April day. Seventy-five degrees, sunny, and very little wind. The birds were performing their daily concert as the trees stood quietly, displaying their new buds. As I hung onto the day, knowing it would soon end, my daughter Madison was playing on our swings. I stood watching as her gorgeous smile, accompanied by that genuine laughter that only a child can produce, propelled her higher and higher into the sky like a rocket.
This rare moment ended abruptly as my son Danny chased a butterfly directly into the path of the previously mentioned rocket. As parents, we know that time in child years is measured in micro seconds. The problem is that adults are still using the old time system, which is slower. Danny was completely focused on what was in front of him at the time, never seeing the danger of the flight path the butterfly was on.
As I opened my mouth to warn the soon-to-be-upended young man, the collision happened. My son’s feet were now where his head once was, and his little body was propelled across the yard ... in the air. He was more scared than hurt, which tends to elicit a longer cry from him. He never saw it coming. It never occurred to him that this could be the wrong path. Danny, like most children his age, only looks ahead.
As children become adults, they gain the ability to realize that there is as much going on around them as there is in front of them. In our adult lives we have all chased things of beauty. In the process we often forget to look both ways—and boom! it happens. Illness, layoffs, death, accidents are some of the many side-swiping components that make up life. As I held Danny while he cried, I thought the right thing to do was to find that butterfly and continue his quest. I was afraid he might do what I have done so many times in my life, stop chasing the butterfly.
As adults, we know the butterfly was not the reason for the upending of a 16-month-old child. The reason for this accident was that he missed the three-year-old on the swings. Too often we blame the butterfly and fail to evaluate our ability to look both ways. We cannot lose focus on the beautiful dreams that we have for ourselves and our families. Spiritually, I continue to struggle every day, chasing butterflies. I lose sight of the spiritual components to my left and right that complete me as a father, husband, and friend.
We all need to look both ways. It is a simple concept when applied to crossing the road, yet this same simple principle turns complicated when we apply it to our lives. We all hope to catch our butterflies some day. When the journey ends, one measure of success will be the number of times we were side-swiped.
Danny never caught the butterfly that day. But Daddy caught an earful from Mommy on an array of topics, including attentiveness and our children’s safety.
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Last modified:
Saturday, May 07, 2005 at 10:19 PM
