Yesterday my youngest and I built some shelves he and his wife need for their apartment. We spent the afternoon doing woodworking in my garage, sweating together as the shelves made the shift from lumber to furniture. At one point he looked at me and said something like “Long after you’re gone, I’m going to cherish these memories.”

That really made my day.

This last week has given me chances to help both my boys with small hammer-and-saw projects around their homes, and each one has been a gift. It’s fun to spend time with them, and it always feels good to pass on what I know about the use of tools.

Each of my kids does work that in some way resembles my own. Most of the time I can’t tell for sure how much my work affected theirs, but every now and then I catch glimpses of things I inherited and then passed on to them. Each moment like that is a gift.

Whatever good things you know, I hope you’ve got some way to teach it to someone else, and to pass it along.