Go, go, go!
I don’t know about you, but most days my mind is going a mile a minute. Thoughts of what to make for supper or if I actually hit send on that work email. I find myself wondering where my kid’s uniform is in the dirty laundry or if we signed up for whatever the next activity that’s coming up on time. There are conversations I’m having with my husband while simultaneously reading an article online. Maybe I’m making a grocery list while putting clothes away and searching for that runaway sock. Sometimes (and I hate to admit this…) even scrolling Facebook for no apparent reason while I am supposed to be playing a game with my kids.
Its’s so easy to become distracted. Pulled both mentally and physically in many different directions. We live in a fast paced world and let’s face it, it’s just hard to keep up most days. We take pride in being able to multi-task. It’s important to feel like we have it all together. There’s value to be found in being the person who can juggle it all, all of the time. That person who can go non-stop. Do all the things, go all the places.
The days are long, but the years are short
There is part of me that really wants to be that girl. That mom/wife/woman who can do it all. So I try. Most days I rush my kids and myself through each step of the day. Quickly ready and out the door in the morning. Back home after school and work. Steps to take, a process to follow. Do all the things.
There just comes a time when it gets to be too much. Life starts to fly by. What is it they say? The days are long and the years are short? Whatever it is and however it goes, it is true and I don’t want my life to always be that way. Now, I can’t say that I am fully recovered from this way of life that pulls you in thirty different directions at once. That wouldn’t be the truth. But, something really did change for me, and I owe it to my then 4 year old son.
So what happened?
Well, one summer evening my little boy stopped me in my tracks. Out of nowhere, he said something to me that was in my mind, pretty profound. It was a summer night and I can remember it all so clearly. I think that is how you know that something is so significant. The memory of it just seems to last and leaves a permanent imprint in your mind.
There I was on my phone, picking up toys, starting my supper plans just like any other night. My son walked over to me and asked me to “just enjoy this minute” with him. I stopped and had to think about what it was that he just asked of me. I realized I had been all over the place and meanwhile there he was. Waiting for me. Waiting for me to enjoy what was right in front of me. To take a break from doing all the things and going all the places.
His words captured my full attention and I had to clarify. It sounds sort of dumb I guess, but I had to ask him what that meant. What would we do? How do you “just enjoy this minute?” What does that mean? He pointed out our front door where our front porch sits and my eyes followed. I could see the sky turning into those cotton candy type colors. Pink and blue swirled together as the summer sun was starting to make its way down for the day. He said he wanted to sit there and just enjoy it. In that moment I would have dropped absolutely anything because I realized he needed me and I needed him even more.
Slowing down
We walked out onto the porch and sat in our matching wicker chairs. Bare feet and blue eyes. He and I. Just sitting there. No phone, no email, no distractions. Just us literally doing nothing except soaking up that minute in time. My four year old little boy just sat there. He just took it all in. The look on his face will stay with me forever. The sun sparkled in his messy blonde hair and he was just content. So was I.
I didn’t realize that doing nothing could change everything for me, but it did. I owe that revelation to a four year old little boy. I’d be lying if I said I don’t still get caught up in my day to day to-do list and the expectations I have for myself, but since then, I really think my mindset has changed. I don’t want to miss those beautiful moments in life because I am caught up in things that can wait. From then on, I’ve decided to make an effort to “just enjoy this minute” as one wise little boy once said.
