About two weeks ago, Andrew came home from work midday as his lunch break. We were both still sick at that point, energy was low and laying in bed for awhile sounded like the right call. Due to the bronchitis I wasn't necessarily feeling super sentimental, but as we laid there with the sun shining in and a light 60 degree breeze off the sea, the dog in between us at 2 pm on a Tuesday, the moment snagged a 'hold up' trigger in my brain.
"We will literally never have a time in life like this again."
We will never find ourselves living in Tel Aviv again, and we will very likely never in our working lives both be home at 2 pm on a weekday for a quick nap... maybe down the road when retired.
And while our our high-strung husky sometimes feels like a part-time job as it is, God willing we will eventually have kids running around as well, needing to be attended to, certainly not allowing mid-day lounge sessions.
What's my point?
I guess I'm just saying, I think it's too easy to overlook the specialness of moments when you're currently in them. More often than not they're pretty small, and can slip past you without realizing how noteworthy they actually are, often due to the imperfectness of the crazy life around you.
It might be your morning coffee with your journal open, or a quiet run before the city wakes up.
It happened again a few days ago, mid-run, along the beach. There are only certain mornings that we can actually run along the water - the tide has to be low enough so that the sand is packed down along the water, basically creating a beach-side trail.
Kai and I were trotting along, an occasional wave misting us. And while my mind was actively planning all of my to-dos for the day, a wave knocked me out of planning mode and forced me to instead be grateful.
The odds of us residing a half mile from a beach on the Med, myself with a work schedule that I can shape to be my own... the odds of all of this aligning again are minuscule.
And that's ok; that's not something that saddens me. But the reminder does force me to appreciate it more.
Stop. Soak it in. Your babies aren't going to be crawling forever - your quiet time is going to be harder to come by. Your coworkers aren't going to be your coworkers forever, and eventually your roommates may get married/buy a house/move to a new city. Your favorite coffee shop or corner bar could close tomorrow. You just never know when the uniqueness of situations you never even thought to recognize as unique will disappear.
And even if you're in a crappy, blah place in life - I promise there are beautiful moments in the midst of the 'blah' that you may be looking right past.
Taking things for granted is something we all do, because it's easy; I'm not calling anyone out here. Yet I think when we are a little more intentional about simply not doing that, we start to more often notice those seconds/minutes/hours that are more extraordinary in the moment than you ever realized.
Hindsight is 20/20. Let's work on that insight.
Alright, I'm off the soapbox. Have a great rest of your week - and appreciate your Wednesday :)
Cheers -
Kait
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