Ever since my son switched from a crib to a big boy bed, I have laid with him when it’s his bedtime. It started out as helping him ease into the transition from crib to bed, but now, about four years later, it is still a nightly occurrence. Weekday nights are super busy and long for my family. Some days, I leave early in the mornings and don’t get home until after 9pm, depending on the schedule of extracurricular activities. It is on those nights that I try to get out of laying with him at bedtime, as all I want to do is get ready for bed myself, but I stop myself and remember: my days of laying with my sweet boy at bedtime are numbered. There will come a day when he no longer asks me to do this and I will wish for him to still want me to.
Most of us often look forward to the next season of life.
For me, it was always, “I can’t wait to be done with school,” or “I can’t wait to get married,” and also “I can’t wait to have a baby.” But now that I have had my babies, I find myself wondering why we wish for the next season of life. I am now to the point where I wish time would slow down. But again, I did not always think this way. Just the other day, while talking with a good friend, I was reminded to be present in my day-to-day life and enjoy each second. I was complaining about having spent the day at the pumpkin patch and being worn out and tired from it, when she mentioned how much she misses doing things like that with her children who are teenagers. This put it into perspective that once again, I was wishing it all away.
When I was planning my wedding, I was so stressed and frazzled that all I could think was, “I’ll be so glad when the wedding is over,” and then it was over and I wanted it back. Then when I had a baby, I spent a lot of those days thinking the same things: “I’ll be so glad when she sleeps through the night,” and “I’ll be so glad when she is out of diapers.”
I wonder to myself now why I didn’t slow down and enjoy the season I was in.
The season I am in currently is hard. Being a teacher, mother, wife, and friend can be exhausting most days. Now, more than ever, I have spent many moments wishing this season away. I can’t wait to not have to be driving to dance practice six days a week, I can’t wait for my son to tie his own shoes, or I can’t wait to not have to pack lunches every day for school. But when all those things are in fact over, what will my memories be? And what season will I be in next and will I be wishing that season away too?
So, don’t blink.
One day, you have a newborn and are sleep deprived and haven’t washed your hair in a week; the next, you are sending that baby off on their own to preschool, and then all of a sudden, they are in middle school. You are left wondering where time has gone and then you remember that you wished it away because you were looking towards the next milestone.
My lesson learned in all of these long-gone phases of life is to make the memories even in the most difficult of seasons. I have found out the hard way that it is over before you know it and you’ll want those times back. If I have learned anything, it is to not postpone joy. Find the joy in what is happening today. That’s where it lies.
