As the mother of two grown children, I often wish I had lived in the moment more often when my kids were little, cherubic and carefree. I wish I had invested more of my busy time in their play time and foolish childhood pleasures than always trying to keep them busy....always worrying about them, making sure they didn't get hurt and trying to turn them into responsible adults---perhaps way too early. Like many harried, working moms, I allowed time to slip away. I was distracted, stressed and I sometimes forgot to balance life, to seize the innocent childhood moments of my own children. Many more times I should have tossed my bulging briefcase aside and plopped down beside my kids and taken precious time to listen to them and to laugh out loud at their wildly precocious juvenile antics, their priceless utterances out of the mouths of babe and their sweet, childhood wonderment.
Luckily for my husband and me...and perhaps without our slightest assistance.... our two children have evolved into amazing, wonderful, beautiful, accomplished adults with children of their own. And there it is....our saving grace. Our chance for a do over. Our grandchildren. We have been reprieved from a life of "if only". Every chance we get, we plop down with our grands and savor every juicy moment with them.
It's Mother's Day this Sunday and I can't help but compare my own, now very elderly mother to my sweet, adorable grandkids. With severe short term memory loss, my 93 year old mom cannot remember much of anything....except anecdotes from decades ago. Yet I can carry on delicious, long, happy conversations with her even now. Nearly all of her current everyday life exists "in the moment" which she can't remember 5 minutes after the fact. But it's still a beautiful thing because she has forgotten any past sorrows or heartaches or unhappiness. Her memory has selectively erased all the negative cacophony in her life. She appreciates even the slightest kindness and gets excited as a child when we tell her about an upcoming fun event. Of course, she won't remember. But when the event happens....she's just as thrilled as the first time she heard about it. Everything is "new" to her.
Living in the moment....like myself, my mother was not always able to enjoy that blissful luxury of being open and mindful and carefree all that much when she was raising six rambunctious children in the era before microwaves. But now she resides "in the moment" all the time. When you think about it.....not a bad way to spend the day. Happy Mother's Day to all the imperfect mothers out there. Sphere: Related Content
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