Living in the moment...

Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!
Luke 12:24

As I see it, there are two times one lives in the moment the majority of the time- babyhood and elder care.

The first- the blissful, sleepless days of being new parents. I mean face it those are the days we are so sleepless it is a stretch not to live in the moment! We live, eat and breathe our babies and new family dynamics. We sleep with a little one on our chest, we have the bouncy seat in the bathroom for the crying baby while we shower, and we try to remember to feed ourselves in between feeding the sweet- always hungry- little baby. We also savor the moments that come along... first baths, smiles and giggles, rolling over, sitting up, crawling, walking. Many of us even savor the harder parts... the colic, first colds, teething, changing diapers, separation anxiety. Somehow as they become more independent, develop along their own personal curves, we move out of the moment.

The second time of in the moment living comes when suddenly something happens and you are dealing with elder care. A parent or grandparent is no longer able to care for a spouse or sometimes even themselves. Again you are in the moment. Is today a good day? You enjoy it with everything in you! Is it a bad one? You agonize through it, knowing that you are here, now, in the moment. You visit, you email out updates, you talk to the nurses, you play the game as you are part of a skit without a script, you wonder how much more you can handle.

GG in the courtyard

And then there is the time in between. It is hard to live in the moment when you are dealing with schedules, usually color coded by family member, school projects, sports, clubs, after school activities, play dates, sleepovers, juggling daycare, worrying about the next meal (not the one you are eating), bills, car troubles, school payments, yard work... The list can go on and on and never seems to decrease! Often life may seem to be the roadway that your wheels are just spinning upon, an out of control vehicle spinning upon black ice. Meanwhile we spend so much time worrying, we forget the beautiful glories that have been given to us. We wait for the kids to be older, we wish they were still younger. The car of life seems to jolt unhappily as we speed up and slow down readhing and running for things not in our grasp. The medium is truly not a happy one for most as we seem to dread the school years, the tweens, the teens, dating years, college times...

While my life is one of chaos and rushing during the school year, I work on slowing down to be in the moment during the summer. The children and I take our time at many things. We go on outings, often reveling in the changes to us since the last time we visited said location. We visit friends and families and savor those times, as those memories need to last a day, a week and sometimes a lifetime. This week we worked on savoring time with my grandparents; still each others love of a lifetime, separated by differing care needs! We also saw my childhood BFF and her folks also separated by differing care needs. The funny part of those visits is how they make time stand still. My BFF and I click right back together, even though we are now married mothers with growing children. I am still the granddaughter coming to visit, even though now I am the one driving my children there.

Cousins enjoying a chat

While my days dealing with babies seem to be too long gone, and my days of helping to care for my elders seem to be steadily approaching I shall remember that I am in today for a reason! I can work on finding a happy medium!