Time (part II)

(reveling, June 2008)

With all this talk about time, there is a deeper, underlying issue, which is of greater import than any mundane task list.

Time is going fast. I can't do anything to stop it. Over and over I tell myself,

Be Here Now.

Two things happened this week that reminded me how important that is.

1. On Sunday all the Mormons in this whole valley convened for our semi-annual stake conference. After the two-hour service was over, we scooped up our boys and looked around. We watched the men put away folding chairs like worker bees. (A classic post-Mormon-meeting sight.) We greeted friends we hadn't seen in awhile. We discussed lunch. I looked over at my sister-in-law, Melissa, and noticed she was chatting with Ted the orthodontist. He had a child on each hand. His youngest girl (there are three older) and his baby boy--now around five years old. I couldn't believe those were his youngest babes.

Ted and his wife, Kristi, moved into the ward (congregation) of my youth when I was a teenager. They were in their twenties and had three darling little girls. Their oldest, Mary, was five, and used to sit close to me in church. I adored her. They were the darling young family. The darling, fun, musical, beautiful family I wanted to be when I grew up.

Flash forward 12 years and there was Ted--with his two youngest children who were already not that young anymore, and with three teenage daughters to boot! Holy cow I thought, as I watched him chat with Melissa. Taylor and Anne are now Ted and Kristi. And in the blink of an eye we are going to be in the next phase of our lives, talking about curfews instead of diapers, cell phone rules in place of sippie cups, dating instead of toy trains.

I already look at my three-year-old boy and recognize how fleeting this all is. The time to revel is now.

2. One of my favorite people in the world is my friend, Cindy. She invited me, Melissa, and my other sis-in-law, Sara (who happens to be in town--lucky us!) for lunch at her house yesterday. As an added bonus, one of my other favorite people in the world, Lesley, was there, too. Cindy and Lesley are mothers of some of the friends we grew up with and we felt it a royal treat to dine with them. As we scarfed croissant sandwiches (you should hear Cindy pronounce croissant with her "I lived in France for a long time" accent. Magical!), mangoes, and lemon bars, we asked Cindy and Lesley about their lives. They raised 11 children between them and now have empty nests. They described the joy of grandmotherhood, the importance of maintaining a close relationship with your husband, and the other things in life they delight in. Then Cindy said something that I never want to forget. "I miss having my little children at home with me. But. I'm not sad because I never took that time for granted. I enjoyed every minute of it."

And so my mantra was strengthened.
Be Here Now.