Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

My 6-year-old is moving out.

He informed me that on his 18th birthday, he’s having cake, then packing. He’s going to move in with one of his buddies so they can run a web show.

But I’ll miss you, I protest.

Well, he says, you better appreciate me now.

My heart falls to the floor. After all, until his sister informed him that it was illegal, this is the child who swore that he was marrying me when he got older.

Then I started thinking about this nugget of wisdom: Appreciate me now.

Every once in a while, I push pause in my life and actually say out loud that I want to remember the very moment. There was the spring day in college with my best friend, driving along the river, the convertible top down, with every possibility ahead. The kiss on my wedding day that lasted long enough to elicit giggles and a few cheers. The whisper from my husband when the nurses handed him our first child, born five weeks early: “She’s perfect, just perfect.”

But too often I’m overscheduled and overtired. I go through the motions of dinner, homework, bath, and bedtime, longing for the hour that I can curl up on the couch with the DVR, away from the needs of everyone else.

Tomorrow, on Thanksgiving, for the whole day I’m going to try and appreciate the now. The hustle in the kitchen. Kids poking fingers into the pie filling. Playing Bingo for Dollar-Store prizes hidden under Tupperware bowls. I want to start and end the day appreciating the now.

Will you join me?