Slow Down

Blink your eyes.  Another second is gone.  We cannot hold it back and we cannot slow it down.  We cannot get it back either nor have a do over.  Time belongs to nobody and it is incredibly precious.  When we are small, we give it no thought apart from wishing it past in order to get to the next birthday, holiday or Christmas.  We cannot wait to grow up.  When we are older we start to realize that time is a scarce commodity.  We start to regret the lost hours, days and years.

However, it is only once we have children that we really start to realize how fleeting time is.  At first when a baby is born, and the initial wonder has start to make way for the realities of dirty nappies, deprived sleep and unexplained crying, we start wishing this difficult time would just pass.  We look forward to sleeping through again, nappy-free days and adult conversation.  Not really thinking about the precious moments we are wishing past.  Our days get consumed by rushing around, meeting deadlines and juggling every days' demands.  We are so busy with living our lives at the pace the world is setting, that we are quite oblivious to the fact that we have stopped to smell the roses along the way.

Then, one day it hits us.  We are shocked to realize that our children are on their way to college, getting married or having children of their own!  Suddenly we are faced with the mystery of where the time has gone?

This is exactly what happened to me a couple of months ago.  I have always treasure every moment of my children's lives.  I have not once wished a certain phase to pass quickly.  Yet, out on a boat in the middle of a river with the sun just setting, I was jolted by the realization that time has indeed been up to its old tricks.  It has passed by at the speed of light.  As I held my recently born grandchild in my arms and looked at my youngest smiling for photo's being taken for her twenty-first, my heart was aching for how fast the years came and went.  I wanted to gather all my loved ones together there on the boat that day into my arms and just hold them tightly.  I wanted to tell time to just hold on a minute, to wait, to let this precious perfect moment last just a while, an hour, a day or a year longer.  I wanted to drink in each minute, engrave every word, hug, smile and glance onto my brain.  I wanted to capture it in a glass jar to marvel at and relive again and again.

Alas, time waits for nobody.  Cliche?  Of course, but so true.  That is why it is so important to treasure this moment, this very here and now.  If you are reading this, I hope you get something from it, but more than that, I hope you stop reading and go find your husband, wife, parents, children, family or friends and hug them tightly, phone them and tell them that you love them, treasure them.

For my family and friends: I love you and value each one of you in my life.  My husband: YOU are the best,  For my children and granddaughter I have this message, a song by Nichole Nordeman:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clcNB_EUao8