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Good morning and happy January 8th!

About a year and a half ago, my wife, Leslie woke me up around 3am to tell me she was bleeding. She was right at a month out from her due date to deliver our perfect, precious, pretty princess Nala. (Which we didn’t know she was a girl yet because we waited to find out the gender)

This, we did know, was not good.

We called the Dr and they told us to come in immediately and to “prepare to have a baby, today”. It was to be an emergency C-section, potentially.

I ran and woke the boys up and we rushed out of the house.

When we got there they had the O.R. ready but her bleeding had subsided a bit so they held off on taking us straight back and wanted to monitor the bleeding first.

Thankfully, by the grace of God, the bleeding stopped completely and after a few hours we were sent home. But not before booking a scheduled C-section for the following Monday.

Now, to the real story and lessons learned.

No, I’m not going to dive into the strength, courage, and tenacity of my wife. Those of you that know her, know of these attributes of hers and know that I would be writing for days.

Today, on this glorious Monday, I want to tell y’all a little story about today’s birthday boy, my father.

Mind you, this is 2022, COVID is still very real and we’re having our new bundle of joy 3 weeks early. The wife and I were already preparing ourselves to have the hard conversations letting our friends and fam know it may be awhile before any visits and certainly masks will be required.

Fast forward to a week later, Monday morning September 19th, 2022.

We’re up and preparing to head in to the hospital when my dad calls me to check in on us and to tell me he’s on the way (from San Antonio, to Austin) at 5am.

I won’t hold ya’ll here much longer.

Fast forward several hours, baby and momma are doing well and I’m beside myself with what I’ve been praying for, for years, daddy’s little girl.

I call my dad, who has been sitting by himself downstairs in the waiting room, to tell him the incredible news. He’s happy, I’m happy, it’s an amazing moment.

Now, I begin to head down to where he is, and the whole way down, I’m preparing myself to tell him that even though he drove up here at 5am, we’d prefer to not have any visitors yet. A conversation I was not looking forward to but I wanted to tell him to his face rather than over the phone.

I get down there and I can’t find him.

Maybe he’s in the restroom. I go check.

Nothing. I come back and look around some more. Can’t find him so I call him back.

This man is already on his way back home to San Antonio.

He came up here not to demand to see his new grandbaby or with any entitlement or any expectations to see her.

He came up to Austin, for me, in case something happened to my wife or new unborn child. He knew there were complications and he told me, heaven forbid, if the worse case scenario were to have happened, no man should have to go through that alone.

So he wanted to make sure he was here, for his eldest son, in case the unthinkable happened.

Once the coast was clear and all was well, in true O’Hara fashion, he left me with an Irish Goodbye. Didn’t say a word, just hoped in his car and drove another hour and a half, back home.

“When you can give without expecting anything in return, you have mastered the art of living” - Jon Mead

I was blown away, y’all. Still makes me emotional as I retell it to y’all.

There was once a time, that lasted well over a decade where he and I barely spoke. Thankfully, that’s long gone and our relationship is the best its ever been.

I love that for me, I love that for him, and I especially love that for my children, his grandbabies.

Lessons learned from this Monday Morning Motivation With Mike:

• Don’t wait until a loved one has passed on to share great stories about their character. Tell them how great they are now and how much you love them now. Today.

• Could you imagine the world if we all chose to GIVE for the sake of giving?! Be there for your loved ones because you love them, because you care for them, and because its the right thing to do. NOT because they should say, “Thank you”, or give you anything in return. Expect nothing and give everything. Wow, what a world we could leave for our children!

• Don’t let your past differences win. Sometimes its necessary but usually not, especially with immediate family.

And please never forget:

You become UNSTOPPABLE when you work on the things no one can touch or take away from you. So work, tirelessly, on your mindset, your confidence, and your character!

Much love, mi gente!

- Mike O’Hara

PS

Love you dad, and again, Happy Birthday!!

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