I am grateful for every moment I get to spend with my kids. They are almost grown now (they would undoubtedly say that they are grown) and so I savor the times I have with them even when those times are difficult. This morning the three or us went out to breakfast together and I thoroughly enjoyed the time I was able to spend hanging out with them. As Michal prepares to move on to graduate school in Washington State and I sort out what I’m doing next, as Jared is also doing, I realize that the times we’re able to be together like this are going to become rarer and of shorter duration. So for now I’ll take all of what I can get when I can get it.
I am grateful for being able to recognize the specialness of moments like today’s breakfast while they’re happening. You’re in the moment, fully present and enjoying what’s happening. You look over at your friend, your child, you parent or partner, a colleague and you know that something really good is happening. You know you were meant to be there in that place with that person at just that moment and it was special. That was what happened at breakfast; nothing extraordinary, just time spent talking and laughing and sharing time together. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
It’s another late evening after a long day. I am once again exceedingly tired and will take my leave soon. It’s hard to believe that March is over. The time continues to fly by showing no signs of slowing and in fact seems to be speeding up. Given that reality (I’m hardly the only one who feels that we’re picking up speed, hurtling into the future) it’s even more important that we slow down and take the moments we have to enjoy the company of people we love or enjoy being around. Or, if we find ourselves somehow estranged from others, to perhaps find a way to move back toward them, toward reconnecting. It’s been in the back of my mind to do just that with someone I was once close to but have become more distant from. There was no major falling out or drama between us, I simply think we got busy with our lives and somehow forgot how to connect with each other. I hope we can find a way through to at least becoming easy around one another again. It might not be easy, but it’s definitely worth a try.
So I guess that makes me grateful this evening for relationships that I have with all kinds of people. I look forward to strengthening those connections over time to the benefit of us all. Who are you grateful for this evening? I’ll close with a verse from a song I wrote called, “Letting Go.”
I watch my children and I see how fast they grow. Each day brings me closer to the time I’ve gotta let ’em go. But until then I hug them and I bless them and I love them and I let them know That I’ll hold on tight and won’t let go. Cause people come in our lives and for a while they stay, But they’re not ours to keep, we let ’em go, we give them away. So we’ve gotta make the best we can of each and every day, Cause all too soon we know we’ll face another time of letting go. Words and music by M. T. Chamblee, © 1996© M. T. Chamblee, 2012
