Everyday Unwrapped

My friend Emily is celebrating the everyday today. And I want to join her.

Time is a funny thing, it can drag by one minute, and fly the next. The older I get the quicker it seems to fly. I am still in awe that my baby is one year old. Didn't we just tell people we were expecting? How does that happen?

Time is unrelenting. It continues to march forward, even when you ask it ever so politely to stand still.

Time won't stop moving, so I better enjoy the moments. Especially the everyday ones. After all, those are the ones that make up a lifetime.

There are countless moments throughout my day, when I'm looking, that I wish I could bottle up. My brain just isn't reliable enough and camera's don't seem to do them justice. I wish I could bottle:

• the comical looks - the way he makes his eyes do that!
• the spontaneous hugs given by little hands without prompting
• the smells of PJ's laced with maple syrup
• the singing done when it seems no one is paying attention
• the funny, funny words that come out of little mouths
• the building of gigantic snowmen with daddy
• the spontaneous dance parties
• the excitement in my little girl's face as she tells me about her day at school
• the snuggling on the sofa as the entire family watches a favorite show

Once those moments are safely imprisoned in my little bottle, I could pull them out and relive them whenever I wanted. Just like the first time.

But, I can't do that. So I try to memorize them in my mind's eye. I try to take pictures. I try to write down the memories. I try to really live the moments so they stick somehow...

That is I try to live the moments when I remember how fleeting they are. Too often, I am too busy to notice. Or too tired. Sometimes I notice, but choose not to join in and live the moment.

Honestly, today it feels hard to unwrap the everyday. It feels hard to create (or even participate) in those moments that make memories. Today I'd rather crawl back in bed and go to sleep.

Which makes this post a good reminder for me. I have been challenged by my friend Emily over the past week (find a few of those posts here and here). I am thankful for the reminder to live in and celebrate the everyday.

And, even though I don't feel like it today, I'm going to try to look for and participate in those everyday moments that make up my life... and celebrate them.