For those who know me well, you know what happened to my family on May 17, 2001. We lost our sister, our wife, our daughter, our friend, my mom, Debbie McLeod.

Tomorrow it will have been 10 years since she passed away and I haven’t really thought much about tomorrow, or how long it’s really been until about a week ago. Not only that it’s been 10 years, but how much I’ve grown, changed, learned and realized in those 10 years.

I will write a post tomorrow about my mom but this post is about the past 10 years for me.

I’ve lost touch with many friends but gained many new (and amazing) friends.

I’ve followed my passions – some are still my passions, others not so much.

I’ve loved, thought I’ve loved, been heartbroken and only recently realized how small and insignificant those relationships all seem in the big picture. I’ve also recently taken a close look at my life and realized that I’m really excited for where I’m going and I only wish my mom could share in that.

For those of you who are still close with your mom, don’t wait until Mother’s Day to tell her that you love her. Make it a regular thing. You never know how much time you have with her. For me, it was 4 days after we went golfing as a family on Mother’s Day in 2001.

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To be or not to be…that is the question.

When it comes to volunteering and helping others, it most certainly is.

I strongly believe that there are 2 types of people who volunteer – those who truly want to give their time freely and those who simply put in their time because they think it’ll look good to their peers.

Well that’s fair. I can definitely understand doing something because it enhances your resume or because it gains respect amongst your friends/co-workers.

But what happened to doing something because it was the right thing to do?

I’ve been volunteering because I have the ability to help others. Mostly my volunteer hours have been spent teaching sports to kids. I think that’s due in large part to being involved in sports my whole life and seeing the positive impact they had on my childhood. Having the ability to give back, to me, is the greatest gift of all. And the best thing about giving your time freely to kids is that they appreciate you for doing that. When you show up and give your best to them, you’ll get their best back. It’s an incredible thing.

I also owe a lot of my volunteer spirit to my parents, both of whom I was very lucky to have had growing up. Whenever Mother’s Day is near, I reflect back on my time spent with my mom and I realize just how lucky I was to have had a mother who gave so much of herself to make sure I had the opportunities that I had – it was truly incredible.

I ask you to think about why you do/don’t volunteer. I’d love to hear your inspirations/stories!

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