Hey there,
I’m sitting at a coffee shop in Texas. My kids are having the time of their lives with Mimi and Papa, and I am off to write and enjoy a quiet moment. There’s a table of moms next to me. Car seats and a stroller crowd around them, coffees rescued from little reaching hands. A cup spills. Talk of baby names and busy lives distracts me from the task at hand.
I could have chosen another place to sit, but something draws me to stay right here. Right next to them, imagining myself in their mix a couple of years ago. Grateful to be around people who understood. Moms who were in the chaos with me. It didn’t matter what we talked about. It just mattered that we were there.
We spent a few nights with my brother and sister-in-law and their new baby. Well, six-month-old, which feels like a lifetime in the moment but now seems brand new. It brought me right back. The mom math of when they should nap or eat. The bedtime prep, knowing you will be woken in the middle of the night. The raging hormones, the unpredictability of feeding and sleep. Finally collapsing on the couch, only to hear the cries start to come through the monitor. Trying to follow a plan until your perfect plan refuses to cooperate.
It felt like it would last forever.
I would always hear moms say, “It goes by so fast!” and I would roll my eyes and vow I would never say that to another mom. Some nights dragged on. Some days felt like I was slowly losing the rest of my mind.
And yet, like when the morning darkness gives way to the sun, things started shifting. Life started feeling lighter. Our days no longer revolve around nap times, feeding times, and wake windows. I looked up and my kids were putting their shoes on without help, buckling their seatbelts, and playing on the playground without my constant monitoring. Our stroller is gathering dust, and we are officially done with the pack ’n play.
Those moms were right. It did go by fast. Like a wave, it picked me up, flipped me over, and tossed me out. Now I’m sitting in the shallows, wondering what just happened and why a part of me is grieving.
I feel such an ache for these women sitting at the coffee shop next to me. These moms who are being tossed by the season. Part of me wants to grab them by the shoulders and shout, “It goes by so fast!” Not to diminish the season, but because one day this will pass. Every journey comes to an end. Every trip, every vacation, every season. The good, the hard, and the in-between. We are finite beings created by an infinite God.
I wonder if God allows us to walk through these seasons to give us a glimpse of how temporary we are. This ebb and flow of hard and easy. Rough waters and bluebird days. One day, we will stand before Him with a different perspective on our lives. We will see how it was all beautiful. We will reminisce over the tears and sleepless nights. The fears we thought were going to end us. The questions we were unable to answer. The days we felt like we weren’t going to make it to bedtime. We’ll see how it shaped us, how it strengthened us, and how it led us to who we are now.
Keep going, friend. Wherever you may be in this season. Headed into it, going through it, or coming out of it. It goes by so fast.
“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Psalm 90:12