“The days are long, the years are short.” NYT best-selling author Gretchin Rubin made famous that quote in her popular book, The Happiness Project. Spot on. I tried to put my finger on just that sentiment the many years of Grace’s younger days.
I had Facebook open the first morning that Grace began her CBTP and glanced at my feed as parents posted pictures and matching sentiments of their children heading off to the first day of school. I uploaded the adjacent picture to my wall. I’d actually decided to take Grace to school that first morning instead of her riding the bus because I had a meeting in town. We arrived downtown in record time and she’s captured here walking the near empty sidewalks past the library on the way to her classroom headquarters. A friend messaged me and reminded me of this less than two-minute video, below, by Rubin, that says it all.
But, first, parents: please remember, we have a gift. The gift of our children’s lives. It is precious and fleeting. Treasure it while it lasts. Thursday, misty eyed, I kissed goodbye another layer of my daughter’s life as she stepped to another milestone along her path to adulthood. Watching my age-range peers send their sons and daughters off to another year of college and observing my younger friends wrestle with the early years of preschool, kindergarten, and elementary, my head is spinning these days. Spinning as I recall how slow it seemed to pass early on and then how fast it went from age eight—third grade—until now, at this perilous precipice of diminishing disAbility services.
…Which only means that as the years accumulate, they will go by even faster. So, I must remember. Remember. Remember to savor the moments that build each day of each year. Wednesday I’ll share some of those moments we savored this summer of 2013.
