Anniversaries - A Piece of Your Life - Time Well Spent
Sunday, August 9th, 2009
  I’ve spoken at many organizational banquets and events where recognition was a key element of the evening. In my mind recognition generally falls into two categories,  achievement and anniversary. Achievement can be many things such as creating value, selling, partnering, performance, excellence etc. The 2nd category, the anniversary, is one I have a growing admiration for. Anniversary represents time spent, or life spent…because a measure of someone’s time is a measure of their life.
 Main Street /Busey Bank recognize their new associates (those who have joined the team since the last meeting. Then they recognize the 5 year group, 10 year group, 15 year group and so on until they hit the 30 year group. Think about that…30 years! At 40 hours a week that equals 62,400 hours! That is significant piece of someone’s life and potentially suggests some very positive things about the organizational culture as well as the loyalty and commitment of the individual. Hopefully it has been time well spent.
I’m in the Netherlands with my wife Rebecca and yesterday we celebrated our 18th anniversary. 18 years ago we were married….and 18 years ago she was only 18 years old. In January of this year I remember her saying to our children, “This year your father and I celebrate our 18th anniversary. This year I will have spent more of my life with him than without him.”
  
I remember when she said those words that they really struck me as being quite significant, even sacred. I remember thinking “WOW, more of her life with me than without me?” Trying to understand everything this implied seemed impossible then and still escapes me now. But I remember thinking about how grateful I was for the willing investment of her life into our relationship and into me. Her words have played through my mind again and again and I’m not sure a day has gone by since they were spoken that I haven’t reflected on them.
On August the 8th the midpoint was passed…and now on August the 9th it’s official. She has spent more of her life with me, than without me. Showing her the depth of my gratitude for this investment, and for her, is not something I can begin to imagine being able to do. A nice dinner out won’t do it. A fancy gift, a trip to Amsterdam, or any combination of things cannot begin to express my appreciation for her life that she has freely and exclusively given to me and to our children.
We spoke today about what love, real love is and what it isn’t. The world says we “fall in love”. Rebecca says, we “grow in love”.  Rebecca favorite definition of love is profound in its simplicity and endless in it’s implication… “Love”, she says, “is going through things together.”
We are constantly going through things together with people personally and professionally. We are sharing time, a piece of our lives, with them and they with us. Let’s strive to honor that more by valuing it, recognizing it, and celebrating it so that as we and those we spend it with reflect on it…. The over arching sentiment might be…
That it was “Time will spent”.
The T4D may be a bit intermittent this week….but it’s not because I have forgotten you…it’s just because I may be more distracted than usual by this incredible person I am spending time with.
Kirk Out
