Happiness is a Warm Keyboard=I Live to and Love to Write

Seasons change and days speed by; I can not believe it’s 2024.

I look at the year on the calendar and I’m flabbergasted and, probably like everyone, wonder when the years had flown by?

I can easily remember being about fourteen and sitting on the stoop with friends, sitting on one of our house’s stoops was how we ‘hung out together’, and we were calculating our ages in the year 2000. We laughed hysterically thinking how old we’d be (by teenage terms we’d be ancient). We’d made silly guesses at what our lives would be like, who we’d marry (of course, we picked heart-throbs of the day), and where we’d live, (Exotic places we’d never been to, or would ever go).

Fast forward 24 years past that 2000 milestone of a calendar marker and of course, we were wrong on all counts. But looking back, I am floored by the feeling of light years passing…life years passing…and all so quickly.

Those youthful days in retrospect were lit by summer sunshine, even the winter moments in those years have a glow of light around it, but the upper teen years get murkier. From sixteen to nineteen, finding myself and worrying how to fit into an increasingly adult world was fraught by concerns of self and self-worth, and career stress that overshadowed most days. And stepping into my twenties, my adult growth years, not in height but in a mental processing, I thought I knew who I was. I was present in those moments and very much aware of all I need to do. That decade was packed with movement, career changes and home moves, life changes, marriage and children.

Big changes, going from single to married and then to being a mom…It was a tremendous hit to self confidence becoming a mom, responsible for the well-being of a little person. The mom role had me packing in a lot more information and navigating a new mindfield of pitfalls, and intense worries. At times I'd wish for the time to move forward, like when my sons were learning to walk and falling down a lot, I was focused on placing pillows everywhere and placing kid locks on everything. And after they’d aced walking, they began to speed walk everywhere; I had to double, speed walk to keep up with them.Those days I feared not catching them if they fell. Oh so many mom worries kept me up at night checking on them, checking on evereything.

But now, both little boys are grown men and I find myself lookig back at those little boy, formative years and wishing I could rewind.

Maybe I missed a moment when they had needed to talk because I was too busy placing cushions everywhere to preempt a hurt, or I was too busy keeping things in order and worrying about ‘what ifs’ that I missed a chance to play another game. I was frantic in mom mode, or work mode or some other silly, distracted mode, so I’m sure I missed some very precious moments.

Still, there are many stored and treasured moments I do have from my growing family days. And, as the beginning of this long winded reminiscence stated, this year I’ve noticed how far back they are.  

So my New Year Resolution is to gather family anytime it’s possible, recognize who we are individually and celebrate being together and being there for each other, whenever and wherever we can find an opportunity, because every moment we live is precious...and every moment is waiting for us to make it a memory.

Thanks for listening...and.HAPPY NEW YEAR!