“Oh, for the Years I Have Not Lived, but Only Dreamed of Living.” -Nathaniel Hawthorne

“Days turn to weeks, and weeks to months, and months to years very quickly.  People plan for tomorrow but fail to live for today.  Men and women work and plan for their retirement so that they will have the time and the funds to do all the things they have been dreaming of for years.  Parents plan on the things that they will be free to do once all of their children are grown, failing to see that the greatest of times are the times with their children.  Why must life wait?  Life is filled with seasons, and like the seasons of the earth there are special things to be found in each one.  Why must adventure, joy, and laughter wait until another day?  Why do people feel that being without work or children is the greatest freedom in life?  Work and family are ever present blessings and the things that many dreams are made of.  

Do not dream about the life that will be, live the life that is, and live it with joy and with gratefulness for life is the most precious of blessings.

Rarely does the perfect time come – the perfect time to get a better job, the perfect time to have a baby, the perfect time to travel and see more of the glorious earth upon which we dwell.  Why must the dreams of our hearts wait for the perfect time, for is not today, this moment, the perfect time to live?  Why cling to future plans and future dreams for our hope and our joy?  Dream today, and live today, and make dreams become reality today.  Dreams of doing are not the same as doing, so do something today and find the joy of this day, and seek your dreams today and every day of your life.” 

I have always been a planner to a certain extent.  I would be lying if I said I was a spontaneous, live in the moment kind of person.  However, I do want to be careful not to let making plans steal my focus from the joy right before me in each day, in each moment.  For me, the most obvious source of this joy is my children, and I try not to lose sight of how precious our moments together are.  Though there are certainly the moments where a house full of screaming kids would make it easy to focus on counting the remaining years until all have moved out – to focus on freedom and travel in retirement – I remind myself that those who have made it to the coveted retirement years always look to us young mothers, those still in the trenches, and tell us to enjoy it because it will be over before we know it.  And I know they are right!  

So, I choose not to get caught up in big plans for the years to come and all of the things I will do.  I instead choose to learn from the wisdom of those who have gone before, and truly enjoy each and every day of wiping noses and cleaning up messes while I have it.  There will come the time that I sit beside my husband – just the two of us in a clean and quiet home – and I will be missing the squeals and chaos of the days I now live.   

When I see a couple newly married speak of how they want to wait many, many years before having children, I never understand why.  To me, they are only choosing to delay the greatest blessing they could ever know.  Now this is not to say that there is not often wisdom in waiting at least a little while for a foundation to be laid before having children, getting married, changing jobs, or whatever needs to be done in life.  But it often just feels as though people are waiting for the “perfect time” to take action in life, and this time just doesn’t exist.  

I don’t want to find myself waiting for the right or perfect time to do something, only to ultimately realize that my opportunity has passed.  At some point we just have to take a leap of faith or else blessings may be forever lost.