...sometimes it's a quick decision to walk away from a life well lived...

...sometimes it's not a decision of they get to make at all.

Once in a great while, it's a child who gets out of bed and goes on an adventure, much to the worry and concern of hundreds of people around the world. Thankfully, the little adventurers are usually found safe and sound. Such is the situation of David Tippin who spent last night being surrounded (and most likely watched over) by his parents.

Recently, a friend of mine told me about an incident where children had been told that their mother's told them that it was ok for them to attend vacation Bible school, but later in the day folks realized that there were no such classes going on at any church in the area. A few short hours of panic, but all the children were found safely - the result of a church that wanted to "save" children who were home alone because their single mom was at work. Those children are safe and sound, but their mothers are being charged with child endangerment.

Many, many other children, however, aren't brought home. In a lot of cases, it's adults that aren't brought home either.

The names are many - Kevin Collins who vanished while waiting for a bus on the way home from school almost 20 years ago... Jeanine Harms who disappeared after meeting someone at a local brewery... Mickey Wright who never checked in after his shift was over, and his truck was later found burnt in a field... Amy Bradley who mysteriously disappeared from a cruise ship...

Their families and loved ones wait endlessly for resolution, for closure that they may never get. Some have been waiting years upon years, as with Kevin Collins or Jaycee Lee Dugard (who disappeared in 1991). They may never know what happened to their child, their sibling, their spouse. Some are resigned to just waiting for skeletal remains to someday be stumbled upon, identified, and brought to proper rest.

I wish this were a more uplifting topic, but it isn't. My dearest wish is that all the missing persons in the world would turn up, unharmed. Actually I wish they hadn't disappeared in the first place. But that is not to be, as we cannot turn back time and warn them to not go to certain places, or tell them to be more alert in certain situations.

What I ask is this - pay a little more attention to the missing person posters at the grocery stores and fast food restaurants. Take a look around at your surroundings and be aware of them. Stay out of places where you feel nervous, and offer to help someone out if a loved one is among the missing.

Every person matters.
Every moment counts.

Thankfully, I didn't have to have this blog go silent for the week because David was found, and there was no more need to have his information up. But I will take this blog silent for the week (I won't be around to update it anyway, but that's beside the point)... time that would be otherwise spent reading this blog this next week could be spent in a slightly different way...

Go to the website for Missing and Exploited Children. Or ChildQuest. Go to the FBI's Missing Person's Page, or the National Center for Missing Adults... go look carefully at some of the faces, and see if there's anyone you recognize among the missing, or among the individuals wanted for questioning in those cases. Take a few minutes and see if there's anything you can do for someone else who is missing someone in their lives...

...and all travel safely in all the places you must go.