Leave A Place Better Than You Found It

March 2005 Aaron asked me, "I'm an expensive kid, aren't I?"  He was referring to the price of his 14 months admission to Mt Bachelor Academy and 40 days in the Idaho wilderness. "Aaron, we would spend every penny to keep you alive. If you had died we would give everything to bring you back. We wanted you to live."  I had exactly that decision to make in 2003. Do not give up. Put everything on the line to keep him safe. Try anything. Go to extremes. Money can be replaced.  "Dad, you did the right thing. I couldn't ever send my son away but I'm glad you did. I'm going to pay you back."  Just live Aaron. I told him he owes us nothing. Just live and be you. Make a difference in lives and be happy and alive. That's all.

Somehow, that bright moment in the story would flicker out within 2 months. Someone said, "All good things must end." The evidence proves it's a little more harsh than that. "Every life ends with grief." Regardless of a family's happiness, in the end someone is left with unbelievable grief.

Aaron paid back to the world every penny and then some ever paid to save his life. Death won the battle, taking everything it could steal. An yet Life prevailed. The soul never dies. Life is ideas. Once the energy of an idea is released it's free from death. Like butterfly wings on air, the ripples of an idea reverberate to the end of time.

On April 2, 2005 Aaron and I were in a field with friends on a pheasant hunt.  Aaron picked up a wrapper of some sort, put it in his vest pocket and said to me, "Leave a place  better than you found it."

Aaron's House. Grace House. Live Free for Health, Wellness, and Recovery UW Student Org, Pres House, College credits, degrees, careers, family peace, life, recovery, friendships, weddings instead of funerals, babies, families, rest, peace, hope, ideas.  You're alive and well young man. You left the world a better place.