One day you will wake up, in a quiet, still house. And look at the beautiful pictures on the wall of your young family, your kids, your babies, smiling and being goofy in all of them. You will remember the days, when you were mad for this reason, or when you gave this kid a hard time for something, or when yall argued, or even when you laughed, and had the best day ever. You will look at the pictures and be flooded with emotions, and stare deep into those beautiful children you had, and all the memories...and then you'll realize that you cant turn back time. You'll remember that they are now building their lives, with their spouses or simply in their own journey, doscovering and creating their family. Maybe you will call them, they'll have a few minutes to spare to talk to you and make sure youre okay, possibly schedule lunch sometime. You will think how fast those baby and toddler and young years went by, you cant get them back, but you did your best with what you had, you will excuse it with I gave them all I could. I wonder if in those times you will remember all of the hours you spent at work, and the times you missed movie night, or the times you couldnt give them a hug during a bad time. Im really curious if you will have joyful feelings when you remember you had to ask for permission from your boss to miss a day and play ball at the park or go on vacation? I hate to think of the regret of not squeezing every single moment with your family and their laughter and giggles and silly dances simply a distant mirage of a memory, fading away into the silence and cleanliness of your living room. I wonder if you will see them run past you playing tag and starting a pillow fight. I wonder if you will sigh and bend over to find socks on the floor that dissolve into thin air, a wishful daydream soaked in hope, drenched in nostalgia. The days when you have kids are so long sometimes, they're hard, they're frustrating and exhausting, but the years are short. The years go by fast and a decade will flash by in the blink of an eye. Your baby turns into a talking trouble toddler, into a proud arguing preteen into a young man/woman, into a responsible adult. Just like that, like sand between your fingers, the time is gone, and youre left with fragments of memories, pieces of a past that maybe you were too busy to appreciate, maybe you were too young to treasure, maybe too stressed to savor. I write this while listening to my youngest baby boy laugh and play with his sister at the dining room table, eating and having a silly conversation that I cant quite grasp the meaning of. But I look up and I see them using spoons as characters in a movie of their imagination, and I cant help but smile. Are they spilling some milk on the table? Yes. Did they drop cereal on the floor? Yes. Will they need to be cleaned up and probably changed clothes? Yes. However in the midst of what could habe been frustration because we are gping to be late to our next appointment....im more than excited and happy that im here, now. Im grateful for their laughter in my ears, im joyful for their goofy gestures. Why? Because I know one day they will be replaced by the deafening silence of a quiet morning, and although most mornings I seem to crave that peace...today, I hope it takes a long time to get there, today, this is my peace. I will laugh with them, I will take them in, and I will sip the coffee my wife made and eat the breakfast in front of me, rejoicing in this day. So parents, enjoy the fleeting moment, its only a couple of decades we get before drifting into a future of maturity and serious conversations, or only seeing each other sometimes instead of all the time. Squeeze every second for all its got. You owe it to yourself, your future self will be grateful, and so will your children and your family. God bless you. - Zeus