Moving: Friends

Time continues on it's 24 hour day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year (unless it's the 366 day leap year) schedule. It thinks not of my labor - painting, parenting, cleaning, parenting, packing, parenting, visiting, and on and on the list goes. I am reminded while packing up kitchen cupboards that time races by all too quickly from one day to the next. I reach for the unopened box of pasta salad mix at the very back of the pantry that I'm sure I bought in the last few months only to look at the expiration date and see that it was probably purchased closer to 18 months ago. I think about how often we plan to make time for others and all too quickly the time passes and we've gone weeks, months or years without seeing or talking to them. We're so wrapped up in our own lives and busy-ness that we don't realize how long it has truly been since we shared with them how much they are wanted, needed, loved. As each hour draws closer to the move, I become a little more sensitive to the fact that I am leaving behind so many people who have meant so much. They are people who have shared the weight of my burdens and the revelry of my joys. They have helped me to grow in so many ways. They have sacrificed of their time, effort, and money to bring me to where I am today. I cannot voice in words how much they have meant to me as a young wife and mother. Their examples, experience, and wise counsel have saved me from myself on many an occasion. I am so incredibly thankful for them and I wish there was some way that I could just add them to the boxes I'm packing up to take with me.

This move has helped me learn to importance of living IN the present. Don't put people off for another day. You may not have that day. Be thankful for those that God has so graciously allowed to bless you and minister to those around you now, while you have the opportunity.