Time can sometimes move so slow, and change can seem to take an eternity.
But then you get to the other side of it, and it seems like nothing but a blip in time.
Yesterday, one of my twins and I took a walk together, just the two of us. A few blocks in, I looked down at the creek we’ve passed dozens of times in the last couple months and noticed something new. “Look, honey, the baby ducks are so big now!” We walked down the grassy hill to get a little closer to the family (but not too close to scare them away). We crouched down and quietly watched them float in a line down the winding creek. Part of me was struck by how the mama duck could get that many children to just follow her in a straight line… and so quietly! I have much to learn from you mama duck.
But part of me was also struck by the fact that it felt like just yesterday when I saw her baby ducks newly born struggling to keep up with her in the pond.
Time can feel so slow while you are in the middle of everything… but when you get to the other side, it can feel like it was just a small blip in a much longer life.
As my five year old and I walked back up the hill to resume our walk, I thought about what it felt like to be in the midst of the hardest years – when there were three under three in my house and all constantly needed me for everything. It felt like that time would never end, but here we were taking an almost two mile walk… him stable on his own two feet and me on mine.
This time, right now, feels like an eternity as the weeks apart from one another drag on and as significant moments in our lives continue to be postponed or changed beyond our control.
But I wonder how this time will look when I walk down the road one day with my ten year old son and see new life once again brimming all around. Will it feel like just a blip then?
“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart…. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.”
–Rainer Maria Rilke-
