What's still waiting

It becomes so easy to worry about time getting away on you.

Everyone talks about how fast time goes in parenthood.

About how soon this stage of life and every little one in between will be over.

How you need to enjoy every moment because it will pass in the blink of an eye.

And they are right.

It does go quickly, too quickly.

We all know this.

How could we not?

We are constantly reminding ourselves as much as we are being reminded by others.

The shoes suddenly don’t fit.

They no longer need you beside them to fall asleep.

You receive the pre-school information packs in the mail.

We encounter these reminders all the time whether we want to or not.

And while these reminders can help remind us to cherish the littleness of them now as much as we can, it can also be triggering.

It can trigger guilt that you have not enjoyed every moment of every stage they are in.

It can trigger worry that you haven’t given them enough with the time that is no longer.

It can trigger sadness at the thought of this all being over before too long.

Because there’s never enough time to have, or moments to enjoy. There’s never enough of the easy either, in the early days at least.

And that’s not often talked about.

But what about all the things we still have to enjoy?

What about the moments that may look different but become even better as they grow?

What about this stage that will always eventually be over, but may be followed with the start of seeing it all over again with their own?

What about all of that?

Can we talk about all of that a little more?

Because those moments are still there.

They will be there.

Because they await us,

And they are exciting too.

They are the firsts that follow the lasts.

There will always be more firsts, no matter how big they become, or how little we become needed.

There will also be new firsts, no matter how hard the new lasts are.

And perhaps it would all be a little less triggering if we were reminded of what’s still waiting for us a little more and what’s already been lost a little less.