Everything Changes when you see your kid

​Everything changes when you see your kid.

It first happened for me back in December of 2006 - the day I first saw my first kid. I looked at him through the clear plastic walls of an incubator. I stared at him. And he stared back.

In a stare, I came to see how meaningless my life had been. In an instant I was invited into meaning. An invitation I never saw coming. In his own quiet way, without words, that baby Elliott was the first person to ever ask me to quit running from meaning.

Everything changes when you see your kid. Everything changes when you quit running from meaning and begin an endless pursuit of it.

It changes when you see your kid waving at you from the stage of a preschool play.

It changes when you see him score his first touchdown in a flag football game.

It changes when you see him look down in awe at the top of the Grand Tetons during his first plane ride.

A meaningless life can suddenly be overwhelmed by meaning when you look at the world through your kid's eyes.

Until the day those eyes are filled with tears because you're leaving. He doesn't understand and you can't explain and suddenly meaning seems lost once again.

And it's tempting - oh so tempting to once again start running from meaning instead of pursuing it.

Until you are there, standing along the fence that surrounds a high school football field. And your son runs by you in a cheerleader outfit. You can't help but picture him running right out of the incubator and on to the field.

There was an energy about him. A smile. Laughter. There wasn't a stare this time, but there was glance.

And there was meaning.

Life changes when you see your kid.

Everything changes when all you've been running from gets lost in this beautiful gift you are blessed with the chance to run to.

The gift of meaning.

So much to be grateful for this week of gratitude.

So much to cheer about 😊