Apparently, I've been in a very reflective mood recently. This is Bennett's last year living at home. It's been exactly 1 year since Gavin moved to North Dakota. Chloe is only 6 months from getting her driver's license. Time is flying!
This wasn't all that long ago. I can remember it like it was yesterday. I was listening to this awesome podcast, in which the host said this incredible sentence that made me stop and meditate on for a long time. He said, "Time lends things their significance." Isn't that beautiful and deep?!
Time, or more precisely, the impermanence of it, heightens our joy of each moment. Because I know their childhoods are passing like sand through an hour class, I can choose to enjoy each stage or wish longingly for the next one or the one that just passed. To quote the podcast host again, I can have a "nostalgia rooted in abundance or scarcity." That's so powerful. I wish I had thought of it in those words.
As I look back over their childhood, I can honestly say that we lived from a mindset of abundance in life. That means that we knew there would be more precious, different, fun, exciting memories to make in every stage. We didn't mourn the last one...the last bottle she'll ever take, the last parent-teacher meeting before college, the last dinner as the 5 of us. Even though we didn't know what was to come, we knew that if it was as good as the past memories, events, experiences, that whatever "it" was would be good.
Even though I can't claim to have ever said anything so profound, I know thoughts similar to those have passed through my brain over these precious years of my kids' childhoods. Just because we're on the far side of parenting doesn't mean we're done. It means we're parenting in a different way now. Another new adventure to live and learn as we go. How beautiful is that?!
