Time Spent With Our Children…Priceless
My hands smell faintly of garlic and cinnamon as I wrap a fresh Band-Aid around the cut on my finger, the result of over-zealous vegetable chopping and poor timing. A small price to pay for a day spent with my beautiful daughter.
The times that I get to spend with my now adult children are less frequent due to their ever evolving lives of adventure and career. My son lives and works in a mountain town out west and my daughter is a city girl with an exciting and time consuming career. Days spent with them are cherished and precious.
Today was one of those days…a day that I was able to fully immerse myself in my daughter. We sat close together on the couch, our heads bent towards each other, talking about everything and nothing. We finished each other’s sentences and shared knowing smiles about things we couldn’t possibly begin to explain. We teased each other about the shortcomings that make us so lovable. We cooked in a kitchen filled with love and the aromas her exquisite culinary talent produced. I chopped (clumsily apparently) and she prepared. The dogs lay under our feet not concerned about what was going on overhead. The conversation jumped from jobs, to stress, to travel, to love, to school and back to jobs again. We were like musicians who knew when to come in, when to harmonize and when to fade quietly.
I often think about the “last time” landmarks that we experience with our children. The last time we changed their diaper because they were finally potty trained. The last time we pushed them in the stroller because they could now walk beside us. The last time we held their hand because they now needed to proudly exert their independence. And how, in the hurry-up world that we live in, we are sometimes guilty of wishing time away to move forward. We forget to relish in each moment that we have with our children…dirty diapers and all. Because, before you know it, you will have to wait for those moments when you get to sit on the couch next to your grown child and listen to the song of their laughter.
Time spent with our children is truly priceless.
Related posts:
- Making Time For Me – With Tea!
- Family tea-time at The Peninsula Chicago
- When Breathing Might Be Best
Category: Chicago, Cooking, Mom Challenges, New Posts, Parenting
