I was at an event last week during which I had a conversation with a sweet friend who is in the full-on throes of life. She mentioned her intention via The Daily Grace to do a better job taking note of the small things, of noticing the quiet, gentle moments in each day.
Oh honey, is what I thought.
“Give yourself some grace,” is what I said.
It’s just not possible, is what I know.
Oh lord, you girls in your 30s and 40s. You are doing so much. You are responsible for so much! You are raising children. Organizing carpool and bringing snacks. Bedazzling costumes. Teaching Sunday School and coaching soccer. Manhandling homework. Cheering on, in game after game (after endless game). Maintaining a home and order and a cross-referenced calendar. Volunteering, for heaven’s sake. And you’re doing it all, so many of you, in the midst of the most demanding, most challenging and most exhausting phase of your work-that-matters careers.
There is so much of everything in the season you’re in. There is too much of everything, except for this:
Time, my sweet friend.
Time itself.
It’s something I actually prayed for in my own busy days, enough time to get it all done. I look back at the girl I was then with wonder and love and admiration, remembering the stress, feeling the exhaustion, seeing the younger me as if I were one of those street performers keeping all the plates spinning, moving one to the next, whirling, balancing, whirling, whirling, not letting a single one drop.
Oh, how I remember.
It will come around, may I just tell you that? Time will pass and your children will grow and your career will stabilize and you will make your way back, all the way back, to you.
You will read a book in its entirety. You will cook a full meal from scratch. You will get up in morning dark not to pack lunch but to grind coffee and watch the sun rise (over a mountain or an ocean, I hope).
And there will be time.
You will notice the small moments. And you will savor them with a heart filled to overflowing not in spite of but because of all that came before.
The crazy.
The overwhelming.
The work of life itself.
XXOO
Thank you Cathy, I enjoyed this piece of writing so much. Its timeliness is perfect, as I’m cooking a full meal from scratch for a dear friend today that would never have happened even a short time ago. And I even joined a book club, who would have thought?
I am so happy for you/with you. Isn’t it wonderful to finally have some TIME??? XXOO
What dazzling nuggets of the trail blazed and the
wisdom gained at the end.
Thank you!
This. Is. Perfect. I just love the way your ??comes right on out in your writing. Thank you! ?
Thank you, friend!
Cathy,
Your words are sweet eloquence but oh so wise and true; for younger women to have hope when life is madly spinning and for us who have been richly blessed with “making it here”. Keep reading, watching, thinking, writing and just being in this life we have been given!
You are so right, Jackie, it is all a gift. I am thankful every single day. And thank you for reading and commenting–it means the world. 🙂
Hi Cathy,
Someone once told me, “No one really knows the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.” Time is the one thing that everyone wishes they had more of and take for granted. In the hustle and bustle of life, time is important with the little moments in life. Spending time with the ones you love or doing the things you love makes you smile the longest and love the hardest. I love your photos and can’t wait to see them in a book.
Satoria