Don't Wish Your Life Away

Wow! What a whirlwind of a weekend! In 36 hours I had 8 hours of work, two band gigs with Aaron, about 12 hours of sleep and two graduations: Yup, two. Our baby graduated from both High School and Community College with her AA Degree this weekend. It seems like just yesterday that I was taking her to her first day of school in kindergarten.

I think most of us, at multiple times in our lives have said "I can't wait for....." or "I sure wish "blank" time was here". I used to be like that all of the time. "I wish it were August right now so that we can go on our vacation" or "I wish the kids were just a little older so that we could go out without having to pay a babysitter". Oh man, to only get all of that time back that I wished away!

These are not words that are in my vocabulary any more. I have realized, as I have gotten older, that time is so precious I wouldn't wish any of it away. Even when things are going bad, or we are not having a good time I now think "Well, at least we are doing this together. Just one more experience in my life that I can put in the memory banks and shapes who I am."

If I had but one bit of advice to all of you young parents out there it would be this: cherish each and every moment and every stage of parenthood. When you are up at 3:00 a.m. feeding the baby, enjoy the peaceful alone time with that little one, looking into their precious face, holding them close and cuddling with them - in just a blink of an eye they will be running all over the house too busy to cuddle any more. 

When they are toddlers enjoy playing on the floor with them, or holding them in your laps to read a book - in just another blink of the eye they will be outside playing with their friends and could care less about playing with you. 

When they are teenagers enjoy the time you have to sit and help them with their homework or being in the car with them teaching them to drive - another blink and they will have their drivers licenses and then they are off working, doing school activities and out with friends and on dates. Enjoy the 1:00 a.m. talks they have with you when they get home from said dates - it's a well known phenomenon that teenagers do their most talking and opening up to you at these hours of the day: if you wait until morning because you are too tired, it is all forgotten.

I really like the moral they teach in Adam Sandler's movie "Click". With his universal remote he is able to click through boring and difficult things in his life, and fast forward to the good things - like that promotion at work. In the end though, he realizes that he has fast forwarded through all the best parts of his life to get to the part that in the end really didn't matter.

Don't wish your life away and try to fast forward to something bigger and better. You will realize that you really are fast forwarding through all of the best parts. It's not the ice cream in a Sunday that makes the Sunday so good, it's all the tiny toppings that you put on top. Take time to recognize and really enjoy the toppings!