Family
After what has happened in Boston and in West Texas it is always good to look back on your own family and rejoice in the good times and learn from the bad times. I had the privilege of spending the day with my wife and daughter in Palm Desert at the Shops at El Paso. Now I am a male and yes shopping and looking at a purse that cost more then my first dirtbike is not my idea of the best way to spend my time (especially with the day a beautiful as today was) but in the end I need to remember what really matters the most in life, it is not the trophies you win or the epic rides that you do, but the people you influence and touch. My wife is now 3 days over due with our second daughter and our first daughter is almost 2 years and 5 months old and a fireball of energy, she only has two speeds, sleep and warp. But I can not think of a better way to spend this day especially when you think of all the people that wont get to after what happened this week.
I know that lots of you feel that there is plenty of time left to spend time with your family, and that riding or wrenching on your bike/quad relaxes you and is your only “fun” activity you get to do. I can totally understand where you are coming from, I felt the same way for so long, I would get up early on my days off and go ride, either mountain bike or dirt bike, and then come home after the wife and baby had gotten up, sometimes missing them completely as they had already started their day and left to go do what they do. After months of doing this something clicked in my heart, I only get so much time with these people, I only have so many moments to influence for good (hopefully) my daughter, I only have so many chances to build up and encourage my wife, to love her and appreciate her, and I was wasting so many of them doing things that, in the end, don’t really matter. I am not a pro racer, my lively hood is not dependent on if I can be 3 second faster a lap then last time. Now yes, bikes and off road is a major part of my job, but on my days off, my family is what matters, and when I am off the clock my family is what matters. Instead of thinking I will have plenty of time with my family later, I realized that I will have plenty of time with my bikes later. I encourage you to take a second look at your life and reevaluate what really matters, what is really deserving of the majority of your time out side of work, and (if you have them) go home, kiss your spouse, hug your kids, tell them all you love them, because for many people it is to late. Enjoy this time because in the end you wont want one more lap or one more hour of riding, you will want one more moment with the ones you love. Make those moments now.
Wife and I riding at South Point on the Big Island of Hawaii back when we lived there. We only had one dirt bike helmet and I let her have it, I wore my street helmet.
One of my favorite times with my daughter, the last time she ever slept on my chest at a little less then a year old.
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