FIT@50 / week 65

It’s Because:

Guys, this week has been so incredible. It was actually after 11:00pm before Liliana Hart reminded me it was Friday and that I’d forgotten to post my FIT@50. That’s just how amazing this week has been.

This was our first family vacation since Disney last Christmas. We swam, BBQ’d, go-carts, arcades, stayed up watching movies, and ate bacon late at night (don’t ask).

It was also our anniversary (I remembered)

Memories from my childhood were so strong this week as I watched the kids stumble sleepily into the kitchen for breakfast, or sprint along the sun-soaked boardwalk for the beach, or snuggle next to each other beneath cool sheets for a movie.

I reveled in how much fun we had although there were so many different personalities, interests and expectations. I also wondered how Liliana Hart and I pulled it off.

Then I looked back at a post my friend Todd Prevost shared of a picture our SWAT unit took in 2003 at the completion of one of the most grueling trainings I’d ever attended. It hit me.

I realized “It’s because.”

It’s because in my youth, my dad would teach the school year and then take a summer job so he could treat our mom and us seven kids to a family summer vacation.

It’s because my mom valued what was vital at the time and stayed home to raise seven kids despite barely scraping by on our dad’s school teacher salary. Of course back then parents didn’t treat their kids as their friends or equals, so lack of money was never discussed in our presence – focus on family was.

It’s because in my career I’d known people who valued protecting families, not just theirs. They would commit to duty on nights, weekends and holidays to ensure other people’s families were as safe as their own.

It’s because I worked in difficult assignments with amazing public servants who although loved their families, always set their personal satisfactions aside for the sake of allowing others the time off to share special occasions with family.

It’s because even after being divorced for almost 20 years, and losing my way, that an amazing woman found something deep inside of me that she felt was worth loving – my desire for family.

Do Good,

Scott