A few years ago, I planted a vegetable garden with lettuce, pole beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, and herbs. Every day I went outside to check it. For weeks very little happened. Then one morning I went out to check again. I couldn’t believe my eyes! The tomatoes were three times larger than they were the day before, the lettuce had doubled in size, and the cucumbers had these really cool shoots coming out of them that had actually attached to the fencing and had wrapped around it several times to hold on. My garden had exploded with activity, and it seemed to have happened overnight.
The magic in my garden made me think about my own kids. They used to be little and then one day and I can’t tell you when; like the shoots of the cucumbers, they were taller than me, were independent, had parts of their lives that didn’t include me and then transformed into grown-ups.
The minutes, hours, days, months, and years flew by in a flash. I have photos documenting that the time spent together actually happened. I remember some of it in bits and pieces, and then some of it is a complete blur.
Looking back, I know that I had spent time looking in their eyes, talking to them, and creating memories every chance I could. What I have today is a wonderful, close relationship with both of them.
You’ve heard it over and over: “Enjoy them now because when you least expect it, in a blink of an eye, they’ll be adults and on their own.”
Start by looking into your kids eyes five times a day. Don’t take your eyes off them. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll see the magic happening right in front of you.