The Gift of an Ordinary Day

If you have not yet seen the YouTube video of Katrina Kenison and her speech "The Gift of an Ordinary Day" you need to stop reading this right now, get a box of tissues, watch it, and then come back to finish reading.

Ok, watch it? Because I did and I was bawling.

Life is made up of these moments. One quote I've always loved is "the days are long and the years are short"...and how true that is! I cannot believe that D is almost 6 and in the final months of kindergarten. I cannot believe that A is soon-to-be-4 and in the final months of her first year of preschool.

Every stage DOES feel like "that's it"....that I'll never get past it, that life will be like that forever (both the good parts AND the bad parts). It felt like D would be an infant forever, yet here he is reading 2 chapter books to himself in one day and has lost his first tooth. It felt like I would NEVER be able to learn how to care for Aviva's medical needs, yet here I am suctioning her trach while chatting on the phone, helping D with homework and making dinner at the same time. It felt like D would never potty train, yet of course by now he goes potty like he should. It felt like A would never eat, drink, talk or walk, yet here she is eating, drinking, talking and walking.

When I reflect on my life (post-kids, that is) it is easy to get caught up in the moments that I had BIG decisions to make: when to stop nursing, where to send the kids to preschool, whether or not to get A's tracheostomy, what sport to put D in. Those decisions can seem agonizing. But really, life is made up of the smaller moments: the countless lunches I prepare, baths I give, books I read, and billions upon billions of hugs and kisses I heap on both my children each day. It's days home sick with a cold, the days spent at the zoo, the days playing dollhouse and Wii, the days running errands...THOSE are the days, the moments, that life is truly built on. I remember a scene, a montage, in the movie "The Story of Us" that poignantly showed that as well.

It is important, as the YouTube video beautifully illustrated, not to take those moments for granted. Because, quicker than you can blink, those moments (again, both the good and the bad) will be gone and new moments (good and bad) will be there to take their places. One day my kids may not let me shower them with kisses, may not want their bedtime lulluby, may not ask me to play a game with them. I need to savor each moment now, as they occur.

Savor your moments, too.