November = Take Time to Savor the Moments
It’s crazy what a difference a year makes. I am a bit introspective this month, so I’ve been thinking about how much our lives can change, for better or worse, in the span of a year.
A year in a life of an infant is a huge year of change and growth. And how that year changes as a couple become parents! Talk with a friend who unexpectedly lost their parent or spouse and know how much their world has been rocked. Or see the lives change for the better of those who fall in love and find their soul mate. I have several friends who are empty nesters this year and it has been a season of excitement and melancholy, this strange mix of both.
Our family had a taste of what life with be like as a family of three when our son soon leaves the nest. He spent his summer away from us, not by choice, but by consequence and it was the hardest summer (and honestly year) that our family has gone through. We’ve had other seasons of life that have been difficult, filled with illnesses and deaths, but this was even harder because it was our child.
Our child…the boy-man that tried for so long to shove the boy part of him down and prove the man part. It’s the tug-of-war that every teen goes through but I was afraid that in the midst of the tugging, my son might be broken by the experience.
This fall as we were reunited, he wasn’t broken by it, but refined. There is a balance of the boy and man within him now that we see. The curious, creative dreamer that asks his mom to go star-gazing with him because it’s going to be a clear night. He knows I love the stars - it was my thing with my dad and has been with my son - so we hike through the woods to his favorite spot with coffee and enjoy the view from the bluff as we hear the waves crash on the shore. It was beautiful. Not the stars, not the waves, not our conversation, but the moment. The moment took my breath away and it is one that I am so thankful for. My son didn’t just share his love of the stars and outdoors with me, nor did he just share his secret spot, but he shared his time with me, a shared moment that I know we both won’t forget.
I am so thankful for the big and little moments that have shaped this past year. The difficult and the powerful, the minor and the everyday moments that add up to a year. I want to create more moments this season and be actively thankful for them. I mean I want to pay attention and notice them and savor them while in the moment. And to be grateful for them.
