Dr. Livingston I presume?

Vic Falls (as it is known locally in Africa) are roughly twice as high as the Niagara Falls and twice as wide as Horseshoe Falls and you can see the mist from the Falls from a distance – hence the “Smoke that Thunders” reference.

It is believed that the first European to see the falls was David Livingstone, a Scottish missionary in 1855. He wrote of the Falls, “No one can imagine the beauty of the view from anything witnessed in England. It had never been seen before by European eyes; but scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight.”

We had planned this trip to see the falls as a side note on a trip to Rwanda and Zambia to visit the work being done in those two countries by the SageView Foundation https://www.sageviewfoundation.org  It is not always easy traveling between countries in Africa so it took a fair amount of forethought and planning to make it all fit in and happen on schedule. While we were “Doing Life” we were also intent on creating memories together.

I have always encouraged parents who have spoken to me about their Financial Plan and College Plan, to try to build in their own plan for making memories. Remember that once our kids get to college, it becomes tougher and tougher to do things with them on our schedules. We end up having to work around their schedules. Their lives from then on are their own and they have to manage their priorities while at college, internships, study, job hunting, social activities, boyfriends or girlfriends, …….and then married life, kids a house and before we look again they will be doing their own College Planning for our grandchildren.

We need to PLAN to create memories with our kids while we still have some control and consciously make time and spend some money doing this. If we don’t, they might soon be out of the house and THEIR schedule will be the priority.

Two of the things that I would certainly recommend for people to have on their “Bucket List” is to experience an Africa Safari and the “Smoke that Thunders”, but whatever it is you wish for your family, do it while you can. This will not happen on it’s own and will take some planning and some effort and some resources, and my recommendation is to consult with someone who has knowledge of how to make this happen efficiently with both time and money. Yes it is good to plan to save as much as possible for retirement, but we only have our kids with us for a relatively short part of their lives.

It’s the same with life – it takes a plan to make it happen.
Plan for Retirement
Plan for College
Plan for Memories with Your Family

If we don’t, it could be easy for life to pass us by and before we know it we might have missed our “scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight.”