Right Here, Right Now
There is something that happens the first time you hold your sweet baby in your arms. You’re never the same. You’re changed. Suddenly, your life shifts from being mostly about you to all about the little life that you’re now holding. And in the midst of such a radical change, you’re in love. You are completely in love. You would trade in the sleeping in and all those beautiful inconveniences, for the pure delight of knowing and loving this little one.
And sometimes when we’re in the middle of it, it can seem like a lot. It can feel chaotic and crazy and overwhelming. Maybe it feels like we never actually get out of the house or we’re constantly breaking up fights and cleaning up. And it can be easy to look forward to the future and think of when they’ll be a different age almost with a longing or a wanting.
But these precious babes don’t stay babes forever. And quicker do we know, do they grow up before us both in height and in heart.
And I think the beautiful thing is that we ought to cling onto and treasure and ponder every single moment because it just might be the last. These moments pass before us and it is almost as if suddenly they’ve grown up, as if suddenly they’re headed to college or getting married or buying their first car.
There will be the last time you rock them to sleep, the last time you nurse, the last time you hold their bottle while they drink. There will be the last time you carry them on your hip, chase them down the hallway, lift them over the gate.
There will be the last time you scrub your hair, brush their teeth, help them into their pyjamas. There will be the last time you hold their hand through a parking lot, swing them around, tell them to say please. There will be the last time you carry them to bed, tuck them in, read them their favourite story seven times. There will be the last time they lift their arms to have you pick them up and there will even come a last time where they’ll stop needing your permission.
There will be many last times and it isn’t even about counting them as lasts but about counting each one as important, as treasure.
Because these moments and this life isn’t summed up on resumes and lists, it is summed up right here and right now.
Enjoy the journey. Enjoy the process. Enjoy your children as they grow. In each stage and in each place, they are incredible.
