Uncherished Moments

I think one of the challenges that every mother--in fact, every person--I know faces is to appreciate the here and now of life. It's easy to long for what's coming; we can paint the future in rosy tones. But to embrace our lives now and to have eyes that are open to the wonder of it all seems to be a constant issue.

This morning I was reading a mommy journal that I follow regularly, and I read this:

Every now and then, I look at my family and realize, with heart-stopping
clarity, "This is beyond phenomenal." And then I get caught up in something
distracting — the fact that Anna's shoes are too small, or that the dishwasher
isn't actually getting things clean anymore. Life churns on, uncherished moments
fluttering behind us like confetti.

Just then, I heard Josiah screaming--literally, at the top of his lungs. I don't know if I've ever heard him scream like that so loud for so long. I ran up the steps to check on him, heart pounding, adrenaline pumping, wondering what on earth was wrong. I knew it must be something absolutely dreadful. Was there a snake in the house? Had Josiah had an aneurysm? Had someone with a gun broken into our house? I could not imagine what it was.

I found Josiah in the bathroom, standing on the stool in front of the toilet, with the back of his shirt wet, still shrieking away. I assumed that he had tried to get to the bathroom in time but had not succeeded so had wet his pants. I wasn't sure why the back of his shirt was so wet, but I didn't have time to figure it all out. I tried to calm him and take his clothes off while he was yelling over and over, "I don't LIKE being wet!"

It took a while to decipher the sequence of events, but apparently the seat of the toilet had been up, so when Josiah tried to sit down...he fell in! As I write this, I cannot stop laughing; but it was anything but funny at the moment. He was in such a panic; and although I can't get inside his head, I wonder what he was thinking as he slipped down into the water. My poor Josiah! Anyway, the wetness of the back of his shirt was not from him not making it to the bathroom in time, just from the wrong placement of a toilet seat.

By the way, if anyone is reading this, please NEVER mention this to Josiah!!! I have not talked with him further about it today. He hasn't brought it up, so I've let it drop. So please, please do not embarrass him with this! :)

After I got Josiah cleaned up and in dry clothes, I came back to the computer and finished reading about uncherished moments--and thought, "Yep, one of these days I'm not going to have a little boy falling in the toilet anymore, so I'd better be grateful for it while it lasts!" :)