Cleaning fish

My father-in-law has always been good at breaking things down to pretty simple terms. When my wife and I were wrestling with me taking a high-paying job that required a lot of travel, he broke it down to Michelle like this: "Do you want to have steak every night by yourself, or would you like to eat hamburger with Steve here?" So in direct opposition to that which most of the world would consider important, we wisely took his advice.

Over the weekend, my son returned home from a school fishing trip with a cooler full of trout. Trout are different from other fish and need to be cleaned in a special way. We called my father-in-law, an experienced fisherman, for some help in cleaning the fish. He kind of apologized saying that he had never cleaned trout and had no idea how to do it. So I started checking the web for some advice and found a YouTube video that explained everything. The next thing I know, my father-in-law is standing at the door with his filet knife. He said "After I hung up I decided I might not even be around the next time you have some trout to clean, so I'd better get over here!"

Isn't that a great attitude to have? Not morbid, but instead having a sense of urgency in seizing the moment because we don't know what tomorrow will bring. Looking at life's interruptions as opportunities instead of nuisances. And valuing relationships over personal comfort. I want to be more like that.