by Greg Habstritt (original article here)
To be honest, I hesitated to even write about this story, because it literally caused me to weep at how horrible and tragic it is.
But it touched me so deeply, I felt I should share it and my thoughts about it, because if nothing else, it might help you learn a powerful lesson – I know that it’s caused me to think very seriously about how I approach each day.
Yesterday in Houston, Texas, a 2 year old little boy was accidentally left in his carseat by his parents in the midst of a heatwave, for over 2 hours. His parents had arrived at the home of some relatives, and their older child who is autistic had a seizure as they were driving. They had rushed into the relative’s home to deal with that — and completely forgot about their little boy in the SUV.
2 hours later, the father realized their son was not in the house, and discovered his baby boy unconscious in the vehicle. The temperature inside had reached over 125 degrees.
The boy was rushed to hospital but had passed away due to the blistering heat. You can read the full story here.
I can’t even imagine how the parents must feel. Not only do they have a child who has autism, which provides it’s own set of challenges, but they’ve now lost their younger son.
As you likely know, I have a 2 year old little boy named Cooper, and of course this explains why this story touched me so deeply and traumatically. It made me think of him, and how unimaginable it is for me to contemplate something happening to him.
My heart goes out to these parents because of the circumstances. You hear about situations where a parent leaves their child in the car to go shopping, or to the casino, and then forget about them. Those parents should be shot if you ask me.
However, in this case, they were tending to their older child’s needs in an emergency situation. Charges are not going to be laid, which I think is the right outcome for this particular situation. But where do they go from here?
Whenever I hear about something sad or tragic that happens, I always try to find the lesson, or the message, that’s hidden within the story. Not only does it make it easier to accept, but I also believe that it is within tragedies where we can learn life’s greatest lessons.
I think this story is a sad example of what happens when you are not fully engaged in the moment, and 100% present.
Most people are stumbling through life, almost like a zombie, and very rarely – if ever – actually are “living in the moment”. It’s so easy to get carried away with our to-do list, and all the pressures around us. But it’s only when you stop and actually live in the moment when you truly live!
Spending your life in the past or the future doesn’t provide you any sense of fulfillment and being alive.
Think about the last time you were in your car — whether it was coming to the office today, or coming back to your home. Do you remember the path that you took? Do you remember seeing ANYTHING along the way? Or did you just operate purely on auto-pilot, because you completely tuned out what was happening in the moment?
While this story is an extreme example of what can happen when you’re not paying attention in the present, I think everyone has examples in their own life where they’ve missed opportunities or created problems for themselves because they were operating on auto-pilot.
My challenge to you is that if this story touched or affected you in any way, that you take a few minutes this weekend to TRULY stop and live in the moment.
Get ENGAGED in your life, and what’s happening around you!
Go outside and sit on the park bench and watch people go by. Grab your children, give them a huge hug and ask them what’s their biggest dream in the world. Pick up your infant and look into their eyes.. and think about what you want for them in their life.
For God’s sake, take a minute to live your life – and do it as often as you can. The more you do, the more it becomes a habit, and you’ll find yourself not only feeling less guilty about the past and less pressured about the future .. but you’ll actually be a human BEING instead of a human DOING.
This horrible story really made me think about what matters to me in my life, and you can bet that I’m going to be spending a LOT of minutes fully present with Cooper and Raylene this weekend. I hope it inspires you to do the same.






















