When police car’s siren blasts your street “This neighborhood is in danger” and officer bangs on your front door “You all must evacuate now,” what will make the cut from your house onto the trunk of your car… in 5 minutes?
Last Tuesday, with the inferno blazes roamed through the
Black Mountain’s hillside with a 40-mph tailwind toward us, our feet were
literally against the fire. As I
frantically raced through the 2-story house full with accumulated “stuffs”
after a dozen years, I grabbed the kids’ photo books, wedding’s album, citizenship
documents, some clothes; and threw them all in the back of a Prius. Together with my wife and daughters, we
joined the rest of our neighbors’ convoy of cars leaving the community without
a clear destination in mind or a possible date of return.
Fortunately, thanks to the heroic efforts of our firefighters,
we were allowed to go back home yesterday.
As we unpacked the car, we noticed 3 lessons that are worth sharing:
1. The kids packed tons of heavy school textbooks because in their minds, “We don’t want you to pay school library fines, and we need to do our homework still.” In their world, library fines and homework are important because we’ve conditioned them to think that way. Children will learn from parents, and we need to teach them well.
2. We filled the car mostly with photos, a lot of photos. In that crucial 5 minutes of time and precious 5 cubic-feet of space, we didn’t have time nor room for any material “stuffs”. And yet, for the next 5 days to 5 years, will we spend time to create more memories or accumulate for materials? We need to prioritize what makes us happy… either memories or materials.
3. We found a black garment bag in our packed clothes. Interestingly, as we untied the zipper, we found nothing on the coat hanger but empty space… stared at us! That left us with an empty feeling of this “important” item that we tried to save in the last 24 hours. This begs a question of what other perceived “important” things in our lives that maybe just as empty as well.
Whether it’s a 5-minute evacuation or a
lifetime journey, do you know what matters to your children, your happiness,
and your life-purpose?
Blogger Bio
Jimmy Thai, DTM
founded the Leadership Foundation Academy to develop future leaders with
passion and compassion. He speaks and
coaches Fortune500 companies to re-infuse the American Pride in corporate
America and the American Dream to the world.
He went to prison twice before
turning 17, and today lives in American Finest City – San Diego, California. Jimmy earned 2 Master’s degrees MBA and MSEE
from California State University, and BSEE degree from the 20th best
university in the world - University of California San Diego. He welcomes your comments and loves to
collaborate with you on Change
Leadership, Motivational Management, Decision Analysis, the ABC Secrets of
Appearance - Body language - Conversation, and Asian Business Development.
In 2015, Leadership Foundation Academy has donated over $10K
USD to its Build a School – Leave a Legacy program, which built 2
kindergarten schools in Ha Giang and Yen Bai provinces. Our 3rd project is to construct a
30-m bridge in Tran Van Thoi district, Ca Mau to save little students from
drowning on their way to school.
