Advent

 Tonight was girls' night out with my very-pregnant daughter. We headed on over to La Fiesta for yummy food and even better conversation. When we got back to my house, there was a quick debate about staying in the car or going inside to finish talking. We opted for the car, where so many times before we have sat and discussed the silliest or the deepest of topics. Time doesn't stand still, but yet it seems to during those nights when we've done this...intentionally focused on the moment at hand, talking about whatever that season has brought us. There have been topics of school, boys, jobs, friends, the future, the past. Tonight's big subject was the big boy nesting in her belly, his advent imminent. She's been married pert near nine months and he's due in another week and a half. If she's like her Mama, just add a dozen more days to that. I always cooked 'em a little longer. 

She said she never wanted the past to be the best thing that ever happened to her...how these days are the prize, the days that she is living now. I love that. It speaks of possibilities, of hope, of renewal. Here this wise woman blesses me, when just yesterday I was carrying her around in my own belly, wondering what kind of life she would lead. Old ladies always told me that life is short and that I should cherish every moment with my babies, so I did. And that's what I told her tonight. There's pain coming, there always is. Both in the birthing and in the raising. Receive it, I told her, and it won't be as hard. Know that even in pain, it's bringing good things. I asked her if I had hurt her since she married and she said only in that I seemed busy at times, inaccessible. Oh dear, the things that I don't want to be for my children. Life is short. God help me to remember what matters.