Terri's Tuesday Tip of the Week - November 24th

We don’t remember days, we remember moments. – Cesare Pavese

Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory. – Dr. Seuss

One of the best memories I have of my grandfather was calling him on Veteran’s Day in 2005 and telling him “Thank You for serving our Great Country!”  Sixteen days later my grandfather passed away, but I will always have the memory that I told him thank you for giving me my freedom!

Last week, I created another memory that will forever mean so much to me.  On Thursday, I boarded a plane with my sister, mother and father and flew to Nashville, Tennessee.  My dad had asked that we go back as a family to see all of the Christmas decorations at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel.  During the trip, we toured the hotel, participated in the Grand Old Opry at the Ryman Auditorium, attended Midnight Yell Practice for Texas A&M Football, etc.  One of the best memories from this trip will be a moment I had with my dad.  My mom and sister were still asleep when my dad and I went for coffee.  The first coffee shop we went to was completely swamped with people so I took my dad on a “tour” of the hotel to find another coffee shop, which took us 30 minutes to find.  After purchasing our coffee, we found a bench outside in the brisk cool air of Nashville and talked politics.  During the conversation about the presidential race, the topic of leadership came up and my dad asked me, “Terri, what is leadership?”  I had been thinking about this topic for a while and when he asked me it challenged me even more and we discussed both of our perspectives.  This trip was a great family adventure, but this moment with my dad is probably the most memorable and will mean the most to me. 

As we are going into the holidays and will be spending time with family, take time to have those special moments.  Things and people will come and go from our life, but those special memories will last forever!

Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose. - Kevin Arnold