Perspective

Perspective is a funny thing. Today in a small town in Arkansas, a 17-year-old Senior in High School is dressed up like an old person because it's Senior buddy day at her high school. Impatiently anticipating graduation from high school and moving on to college. The month she waits is probably the longest of her life. Grinning from ear to ear, a woman in Texas feels as if she could tear into pieces and cry in jubilation at the same time just thinking about her wedding day. Waiting to marry the man she loves even for just a month seems an eternity. In Rexburg, Idaho, a soon-to-be mother is just about one month shy of her first baby's due date. After enduring 8 months of giving her body fully to someone she hasn't even met, this last month, although not quite as uncomfortable as some of the previous, is the most torturing! And I am thinking about the past year, wondering how time could have gone so fast and how I ever thought time went by slowly.

Perspective is a funny thing. I remember being in all of those situations once (although, not in all of those places). I remember the end of the school year taking ages to come, my wedding day, although only a month's distance away, seemed more like a year, and my baby's arrival teasing me with passing due dates and false alarms. I was so ready to get out of high school, so ready to be married, so ready to be a mother... And now I find myself... surprised.

Perspective is a funny thing. A year ago today, I was sitting in Andrew's Grandparent's basement with my mom, wondering when, if ever, my baby was going to come. Hoping I wouldn't somehow mis-interpret contractions for cramps (HA!), Andrew wondering and hoping the same thing, and my mother probably thinking I was so silly, but not saying so because that's not the kind of woman she is. A year ago today, I was big and round. A biggness and roundness that would sometimes bulge on the lower right side in a consecutive manner because someone got the hiccups. A year ago today, life was very, very different.

And now I look at where I am today. An entire year later from then. What seemed to take an entire lifetime in high school, college, and pregnancy passed by like a breeze. Pleasant, but quickly gone... and never forgotten. The thing about a breeze is that you never really forget what they feel like. The goosebumps on your arms seem to return when you remember it. Not because it was cold, but because the memory of it comes back so vividly, it's almost like you're feeling it again. The best part is when you're in the business of mothering, or just living life to the fullest, each and every day a new adventure, those breezes are pretty common. And they're always memorable.

Perspective is a funny thing. I guess there comes a point in everyone's lives where they stop thinking about what they're waiting for and allow themselves to be swallowed up in the moment. Both perspectives are valuable... but that depends on your perspective.

Perspective is a funny thing...