Perfectly Ordinary Days

This time of parents and children all living together under one roof isn’t the whole story after all – it’s just one chapter....

You remind yourself – learn the art of letting go by practicing it in the present. Instead of regretting what’s over and done with, savor every minute of the life you have right now – of family dinner, you and the kids all squeezed onto the couch to watch a movie, a cup of tea in the kitchen before bed, saying goodnight in person....

If motherhood teaches us anything, it’s that we can’t change our children – we can only change ourselves.

And so, instead of wishing that the kids could be different somehow, you try to see every day what’s already good in each of them, and to love that. Because any moment now you’re going to be hugging a daughter whose turned into a woman, or standing on tip toes saying goodbye to a son whose suddenly six feet tall, and heading off to a college that’s half way across the country….

The book shelf in my own living room is full of photo albums, nearly 20 years worth of well documented birthday cakes, and holidays, piano recitals and little league games. But the memories I find myself sifting through the past to find - the ones I’d give anything now to relive - are the ones that no one ever thought to photograph. The ones that came and went as softly as a breeze on a summer afternoon.

It’s taken a while, but I certainly do know it now – The most wonderful gift I had – the gift I finally learned to cherish above all else was the gift of all those perfectly ordinary days.

-Katrina Kenison

Perfectly Ordinary Days

Friday, April 30, 2010

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