I Don't Wanna Miss This

I'd heard the song, probably as I was driving, but hadn't really let the lyrics sink in.

Then, last night on the sixth row of the Grand Ole Opry, I heard Trace Adkins sing the song "You're Gonna Miss This," and tears streamed down my cheeks as I listened to the words and applied them to my own sometimes-hectic life.

Just that morning, I had slipped under the covers of my 6-year old's twin bed and wrapped my arms around him for a few precious moments of snuggle time.  In our day-to-day rush, there are very few times when we get to just spend uninterrupted time in silence just being "together." A few minutes later, we were in an all-out tickle war and then it was off to Saturday morning breakfast with Daddy.

We have a lot going on in our world. Two full-time jobs outside of our home life, trying to get this house leased before we move into the one we are in the process of buying, selling excess furniture, getting involved in a new church, school activities and responsibilities, keeping up with family and friends as well as trying to stick to our new habits of eating healthier and getting some exercise. Sometimes, it seems as if every single moment in our day is booked...leaving us no time for the important things...the "I want to remember this for the rest of my life" kind-of things.

Life with two boys ages 6 years and 9 months is never short on excitement. Just this morning, our baby pulled my drink off the table and into his lap at the restaurant (even though I had tried my best to position it out of his lightning-fast grasp) and our 6-year old was running around the house wielding a Mickey Mouse sword and donning his fiercest cowboy hat and Bob the Builder tool belt. It's hectic. It's crazy. But, it's our home.

And those lyrics come floating back to me......

"You're gonna miss this. You're gonna want this back...."

I know this to be true. The moment D. figured out that "dello" was really pronounced "yellow"...oh how I missed his sweet little mispronunciation. 

"You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast..."

And as soon as Baby J. didn't need me in the middle of the night, I missed that hushed-whisper dialogue intermingled with the creaks and squeaks of the glider rocking back and forth as I sang him to sleep. That was our time. And I missed it. Even though it was 3am and I was past the point of exhaustion during many of those middle-of-the-night sessions...I missed it.

"These are some good times, so take a good look around...

You may not know it now... but you're gonna miss this."

I don't want to take this time of my life for granted. I feel as if I have wasted too many days wishing for the next best thing to come. Remembering the sweet times as newlyweds in our little apartment in Birmingham with few responsibilities. We didn't have much but we were so busy trying to get to the next stage of our life... that whole time seems like a blur. 

I want to begin to look at each day--each hour-- of my life as a morsel of a wonderful feast. Bite by bite, I will taste the sweetness and not take it for granted. We only get one life and I want to savor this one as long as I can.

I don't wanna miss this.