Our morning ritual goes like this – alarms go off, mom and dad tiptoe around in hopes of just a few more precious moments of silence before the cascade of questions and demands start. “MAAHHHHHM, where are my shoes?” “He took my belt!” “There’s nothing to eat!” and so on.
Jon, your observation, "I am haunted by a feeling that we don’t have much time with these kids," reminded me of this:
"Watching one’s small humans age and grow up packs a serious punch. It’s like being stuck in a dream unable to speak, like being a ghost that can see but not touch, like standing on a huge grate while a storm rains oiled diamonds, like collecting feathers in a storm. Parents in love with their children are all amnesiacs, trying to remember, trying to cherish moments, ghosts trying to hold the world.
"That’s me—trying to hold the world, trying desperately to catch the oiled diamonds as they fall. Beyond wanting to do a good job at this parenting thing, I want to enjoy raising my children. I don’t want to look back twenty years from now and realize that those active parenting years went by so fast I didn’t relish them. I’m terrified I’ll wish I had been less distracted and more attentive. I’m afraid I’ll come to the realization, when it’s too late, that I should have been more present. I’m afraid I’ll wish I had enjoyed it more.
"The days I have to raise my children while they are still under my roof, and the days you have to raise yours, are finite. When you picked up this book, you may have thought you were getting a manifesto on reading aloud. By the end of it, you might decide that’s exactly what it is.
"But right here at the beginning, I want to make sure you know what this book is really about: it’s about you and me going all-in for our kids, about doing what matters most with our time and energy today. Right now. Right when it matters most—as diamonds rain down and fall through the grate beneath our feet."
Completely agree about the every interaction. Acknowledging it can make me prone to over thinking my own too-quick and bitting response. But that can be a lesson too - know the right timing kiddo!
I still remember a talk we had at the bridge line between JZ-ELP, when you mention your desire of being a dad. Knew you as a great man and now reading you still are + a great dad.
Jon, your observation, "I am haunted by a feeling that we don’t have much time with these kids," reminded me of this:
"Watching one’s small humans age and grow up packs a serious punch. It’s like being stuck in a dream unable to speak, like being a ghost that can see but not touch, like standing on a huge grate while a storm rains oiled diamonds, like collecting feathers in a storm. Parents in love with their children are all amnesiacs, trying to remember, trying to cherish moments, ghosts trying to hold the world.
"That’s me—trying to hold the world, trying desperately to catch the oiled diamonds as they fall. Beyond wanting to do a good job at this parenting thing, I want to enjoy raising my children. I don’t want to look back twenty years from now and realize that those active parenting years went by so fast I didn’t relish them. I’m terrified I’ll wish I had been less distracted and more attentive. I’m afraid I’ll come to the realization, when it’s too late, that I should have been more present. I’m afraid I’ll wish I had enjoyed it more.
"The days I have to raise my children while they are still under my roof, and the days you have to raise yours, are finite. When you picked up this book, you may have thought you were getting a manifesto on reading aloud. By the end of it, you might decide that’s exactly what it is.
"But right here at the beginning, I want to make sure you know what this book is really about: it’s about you and me going all-in for our kids, about doing what matters most with our time and energy today. Right now. Right when it matters most—as diamonds rain down and fall through the grate beneath our feet."
---N. D. Wilson, Death by Living
Completely agree about the every interaction. Acknowledging it can make me prone to over thinking my own too-quick and bitting response. But that can be a lesson too - know the right timing kiddo!
I still remember a talk we had at the bridge line between JZ-ELP, when you mention your desire of being a dad. Knew you as a great man and now reading you still are + a great dad.