This Too Shall Pass

"Well, that was life. Gladness and pain . . . hope and fear . . . and change. Always change! You could not help it. You had to let the old go and take the new to your heart . . . learn to love it and then let it go in turn. Spring, lovely as it was, must yield to summer and summer lose itself in autumn. The birth . . . the bridal . . . the death. . ."

~Anne of Ingleside

I used to think the phrase "this too shall pass" was just something we needed to hear in times of peril and suffering, but after attending a Mother Blessing for my sister recently,  I came to see that it has a broader, bitter-sweet meaning as well.

As a few lovely women were giving their final blessings to my sister, someone urged her to keep in mind that everything changes, that there is a fluidity to life and motherhood that we cannot stop.  

Each moment seamlessly carries us into the next, and before we know it, that moment is gone.

Wouldn't it be lovely to remember that in the midst of sleepless nights and dirty dishes? Doesn't it always seem as if a bad moment will NEVER pass? But it will.

And so do good ones.  That is, the sweet tender moments where your babe is sleeping peacefully, mouth fluttering all the while. First steps, first giggles, first words, first hugs.  They go.

Why do we always wonder when our child will do this, or that. Why are we always wishing moments away when, in these tender years, we should be cherishing each moment.

When my son was born, many people told us how quickly that first year goes...and then the next one, and so on. We didn't believe it. We couldn't ever imagine our little man any different than he was at  that moment. And we didn't try to either!

And yet,  it is in our nature, and the nature of the world, to change.  Things can't and won't stay the same.  So the next time your child does something that makes your heart soar, revel in it for a little while. Let it wash over you.  Turn off auto-pilot and stay a while in a beautiful moment. Because, this too shall pass.