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The Moments That Are Given

Mom! It’s graffiti! It’s art...on a shoe! I have to try it on. Please...can I?

It was my 12 year old’s first foray into heels. A big moment in our little lives. Working full-time when she was an infant had stolen other big-little moments from my camera’s eye -- the first time she rolled over, the first time she sat up unassisted...the first firsts.

Newly, gladly and willfully unemployed for the first time in 15 years, I took a picture.




The picture wasn’t as much of an attempt to catch up on lost firsts, but rather a net to capture a butterfly’s moment of the moment; because if history skips a generation and the math holds out, there are more years behind me than ahead.

My mom died at 63. Her mom died at 47.

I’m 46.

I’ve checked all over my person for a stamped expiration date, from the flabby inside parts of my arms, to the backs of my knees and other parts of my anatomy that shall remain nameless here. 

There is no such date.

Yet, there is a possibility of exiting in one or even seventeen years. It is a specter that reveals itself in the wee hours when sleep eludes me. Sometimes it’s in the peripheral view of everyday moments, like when my daughter slips on her first pair of heels. That’s when I capture the moment, then fan off the specter and tell it to go do something obscene to itself.

That’s just one of the things that happens because I know my history and its math.

Other things happen too. Beautiful things.

I pray differently.
Thirteen years ago, I prayed the baby I was carrying would be healthy. I prayed our marriage would stay stable and intact. I prayed for financial stability. Those requests were gracefully granted. As I edge up to the half-century mark, I pray my daughter will hear my voice when she navigates the crossroads of the teen years; and that my example will help her be a good friend and encourager of others. I pray these requests will be fulfilled whether I witness them from here or from a heavenly view.

I hear differently.
My husband’s workplace saga, the detailed picture he paints with words -- who said what, how they said it, bills of lading, procedures for shipping and receiving don’t sound like a boring account of the goings-on of a warehouse job. It sounds like We’re in this together. I trust you with everything I am and do -- even the minutiae.

I feel differently.
We were infrequent fliers on our way home from a family trip. My daughter still isn’t sold on the gathering speed and thrust of takeoff. Her breathing quickened, her jaws clenched and her heart pounded with enough force to make her delicate neck throb visibly.

I tried to intervene in her anxiety:

Honey, tell me about your happy place. What does it look like? What about it makes you happy? What does your happy feel like? 

As she told me, we approached cruising altitude. She let her tray table down and rested her arm on it. I slid my arm into hers the way a mom who is well past 47 years old or 63 years old would with her adult daughter.

I held that feeling of skin on skin, its weight and warmth in my heart. I thought about the years ahead of me -- of us.

And I captured the moment.





Comments

  1. Thank you for this. I need to watch for those moments with my own little ladies.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I know I already commented on Facebook but I need to comment on here.
    I just found you on Bloglovin so now I will be commenting on all the posts, ALL THE POSTS!
    I love your writing and I am so glad I found you through LTYM,

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH FOR THAT!
      IN ALL CAPS AND EVERYTHING!

      Delete
  3. aww. i really enjoyed this piece, and how you captured precious fleeting moments with your daughter. it encourages me to think of my own mom, and how i should cherish my moments with her more, and not take our limited time together for granted (since we live in different cities.) thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for reading.
      Treasure the time with your mom.

      Delete
  4. I check myself for a stamped expiration date, too, but in my case it's because I don't know the math or my history. (I was adopted as a newborn, before people cared too much about gathering that much info from birth mothers.) This piece was beautiful! I'll be returning to it again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Probably a good thing we don't have expiration dates...makes us smarter about the time we have. Thanks for reading.

      Delete
  5. You really hit home with this one. My daughter is headed off to college, 400 miles away from home, in less than a month. I especially appreciated not only how you captured that feeling of childhood slipping through our fingers as mothers, but I was also very drawn to the part about hearing differently...listening to the minutia of your husband's day and hearing it for what it really is. Loved that part. When I was working I had too much minutia of my own, I think, for him to open up to me with his own. And now that I'm a full time mother and wife, he's started sharing and lately -- with my daughter's departure looming -- I am hearing it and knowing that there will soon be an "us" again that hasn't really existed that way in 18 years. Thank you for the unique perspective of this piece. Beautifully written.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for reading. So glad it touched these different phases we're all going through. Good luck to your daughter in her new journey and to you and your husband in your new "getting to know you" journey.

      Delete
  6. Oh Rochelle...
    You don't know how much this speaks to me. I get it. Oh, do I get it. I don't know my expiration date either- but my history has warnings, red flags- and I have beat the odds with preventative surgeries. So far.

    These moments you are capturing are SO much more significant than those other firsts. Why? Because your beautiful girl will REMEMBER them. They will always and forever be placed in her heart. What a gift!

    Lets keep adding more pieces until- that date. Okay? You never know- God may just have our number in the high 90's just to show off. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chris, thank you for getting it. The warnings, red flags -- all of it.

      I'm all for adding more pieces...and excited to see God show off! :)

      Delete

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