On this Valentine's Day, let's all take the opportunity to give our children and loved ones the gift they want most. Our Time.

Who hasn't heard from another parent, "enjoy your children now; they grow up so fast!" That is a true statement. They do grow up very fast. All children do. You did too when you were a child. But when another parent gives you this line, what are they really telling you? No, they are not simply stating the obvious, and they are not telling you to take lots of pictures or videos because your children will soon look very different. They are telling you that you should take the time to sink into your children and make this time of their development, and every time of their life, as memorable as you can by sharing it.

When I was 5, my grandfather who was a general contractor wanted me to be an architect. When I was 7, he told me that I needed to become a civil engineer. At age 10, I announced that I was going to become a bishop but ended up removing my hat from consideration when as a tween I realized that bishops had to be celibate. No thank you, not for me. At about that time my father, a medical equipment manufacturer, wanted me to be a doctor and my grandfather was still pushing hard for the civil engineering gig. I didn't even know what an architect was, and when I asked I was told that he is the man who builds houses. "Then what is a builder grandpa?" I asked, but received no good answer. I didn't even bother asking him what a civil engineer was, resolving that it was probably an engineer who was polite. Wrong, but not for me just the same.

August 27, 1976, seems so long ago but it feels like yesterday. It was on that day that I took my first steps on American soil at JFK airport determined to make a life on my own.  I had left my loving family in Greece to join a host family in the Boston area as an exchange student, in search of a future that I hoped I'd have a hand in influencing instead of accepting what was served to me by the status quo.  So without language skills, or knowledge of people or culture, I set out to prove to myself that I could.