Have you ever gotten in your car and set on route to a destination only to arrive at your destination not really knowing how you got there? You went into autopilot. Your mind just kicked into gear and made every stop and every turn necessary to get you to where you needed to go. You took no time to enjoy the view. You missed the rainbow in the sky. You missed the sun peeking out through the clouds. You missed the little old man holding his wife’s hand as he walked her to the car. You even proceeded to get off and go inside and when you came out you couldn’t find your car in the parking area because you don’t even remember where you parked. Well the same thing can happen to us in life. We enter each day knowing our to-do list. Therefore, we proceed to take it on. At the end of the day we’re exhausted and head straight to bed. By the end of the week we find ourselves asking, “where has the week gone?”. We went through our days checking off our to-do list with no real recollection on how we did it all. We took little to no time to enjoy our children, our husband, or even ourselves.
The other day I found myself watching a video of Isaiah of when he was about 4 years old. I longed to reach into the video and hold him if even for a little while. Where has the time gone? Oh, how quickly he’s growing up! He’s not so tiny anymore. I’m sure there was definitely days when i was on autopilot, just trying to get through the day. I’m sure there’s been weeks during this past decade when I was too busy checking off my to-do list that I missed him learning something new. I know there was nights I was too tired to read him a bed time story. I know there was mornings I was too in a hurry to get him ready for school that I didn’t see how he needed a longer hug goodbye. While I’ve tried to be as present as possible in his life, (after all that is why I’m a stay at home mom) I am only human. I try to remind myself to slow down. The dishes will eventually get done, the laundry will inevitably get washed (even if it is at 1 am while everyone else sleeps).There will always be a to-do list waiting for you every morning when you wake up, but there will not always be little ones. Some day they will be grown, they will have moved out, they will be married raising a family of their own, but for now, in this moment they are ours. So lets hug our babies a little longer, read them that bedtime story they love so much, kiss them more than once goodnight, sit and watch the movie with them. Let’s get off autopilot and fly this plane ourselves.
Enjoy them for they’re only little for a little while.
Mom Blogger,
Rosalinda Serna