Do we really know what is important? In any given day, do we value what we have or just take it for granted and let the petty frustrations of our real estate career bury our real life's mission and divert our priorities?  Do we often half listen to our spouse or children because we have a transaction falling through or a seller who seems impossible? Tonight, I was with a friend at the airport as he waited for his wife and son. They were late. Usually, this scene would have created feelings of frustration, impatience or maybe even anger. Some may have complained to whoever would listen that they had things to do or places to be. Some would have spoken of the inconvenience of the delay. This night was different. When a cell phone rang to tell us the passengers we awaited would finally arrive in 10 minutes, the wait seemed like 10 years. No one complained.

My friend , Frezghi Abraham, was breathing rapidly, his face was awash with anticipation and he was hanging onto the friends who had assembled with him to give him strength and share his joy. This was a moment he had been waiting for. Tonight, he was to see his wife and 11 year old son for the first time in 10 years. Tomas was a baby when he last saw him. As a recent Eritrean refugee to the US, Frezghi had spent every waking hour working to make this moment possible. In his native country, he had endured prison and torture; he and his wife had been injured in a bombing. She lost an eye. Then they were separated; if he stayed, he would have been killed.  In the last 13 months, she and her son have been in hiding in Sudan while the government was rounding up foreigners and putting them in refugee camps.  She hid for their lives.  Frezghi frantically called anyone he could find to help get his wife and son out of Sudan. It worked.   Tonight all the trauma ended   When his wife and son finally appeared, everyone cried. Everyone hugged and embraced his family. Such pure joy!

Tonight, when we are tempted to go to sleep thinking that work is more important than reading to a child or spending uninterrupted time with our spouse or parents or friends, hopefully we will remember this story.

Our relationships and our community, not our deals or our businesses are our most precious assets. We all want careers worth having and businesses worth owning, but most of all we need and want a life worth living!  Live in gratitude for your own incredible self, your family, your friends and colleagues. Remember to express appreciation for how blessed you are.