Late October in my household is a wonderfully chaotic blend of school, Halloween happenings, Samhain preparation, and martial arts tournament preparation.

Last year, we also added my son's black belt test to that mix, since his community of martial arts schools does black belt testing on the same day as the tournaments, which occur in the morning. Since he doesn't qualify to test again for his next rank until at least the springtime, he decided to join the school Demo team for this autumn's tournament day.

I've lived a lot of hours in the parent chairs near the mat in recent weeks. I'm getting a lot of personal letter writing and journaling done during those two hour stretches of classes and team practice.

Today, I witnessed something that I absolutely loved while we were at an extra school social event to carve jack o'lanterns for Halloween.

The assistant teacher for my son's classes, Mr. D., has recently taken over one of the other school locations. They had a congratulations cake for him today, and a lot of the kids were giving him hugs since they'll miss seeing him so often.

The lead instructor, Mr. R, reinforced to the kids to remember what they'd just seen as Mr. D. thanked them all and remarked how privileged he felt to have taught them all. Mr. R. reminded the kids - and all of the parents - that we're here on this earth with a purpose. We need to go through this life with intention.

We need to make this life count. We need to leave this world better than we found it.

Mr. D had a lot of tears today as he starts this new chapter of his life. He's a young man, only 18 years old, and he's already making an incredible mark on this world through inspiring so many kids.

I feel like I really need to get my butt in gear and pick up the pace.

Happy Saturday, everyone. How are you making your life count this week?