Andrew (5) was sprawled out on the living room floor, head tilted upward, palms flat against the floor boards. "Mom," he said, "I can feel the Earth spinning, can't you?"
Oh, my darling boy, I wanted to say, if you only knew.
Do you ever feel it? Do you know how?
No, I'm not talking about the actual rotation of the planet, but sometimes, in the calm still moments, can't you feel the world turning?
You can feel it in the wheel of the year, one season spinning into another, the hot bright days of summer cycling into the crisp, cool, decadent decay of autumn. You can feel it in the circle of life (Lion King references aside), as old ones - plants, animals, people - die and new ones are born. Plant a garden and feel it in the predictable routine of seed to plant to blossom to fruit to seed again. Feel it tug at your heart as you watch your children grow, as your gaze shifts from your young adult child to your four year old and see the whole spectrum stretched out between them. Look through the memories of your married life and watch your beloved grow older, wiser, happier alongside you.
Days keep coming and we cycle our way through them as they spin into weeks, months, years, lifetimes. Some things in life are constant and predictable, some catch us by surprise.
So many things we take for granted, if we're not careful.
I heard it said many years ago, and took the saying to heart, that the days are long but the years are short. Truer words were never spoken. So many little things that add up to what we call a life. To that wise saying, I'd add my own: Life is too short to hurry through it.
You'll never do every thing you want to do. You'll never go every place you want to go. There will always, always be more to want. (Personally I sometimes have a small internal crisis when I think about the fact that I could never read all the good books in the world.) The world is huge and full of wondrous things. But never forget that amazing things await right where you are. Adventure is out there, and take it when you can, but never forget that adventure is in here, too, in the people and places and miracles we see every day.
So watch the roses bloom and every spring, and don't just hurry past them.
Play in the creek, hike up the mountain, go out for ice cream. Grow pumpkins, bake cookies, read good books late into the night. Read the same book for the eighty-fourth time to your little girl. Tell stories, sing songs, dance in the kitchen. Play knights and dragons, build Lego houses, draw with crayons. Look at the clouds, kiss under the stars, giggle like a child. Take note of the shortening and lengthening of the days as the years circle round. Note when the geese fly overhead, when the strawberries ripen, when the days cool and when the rains come. Don't ever underestimate the beauty of a simple life.
And if a little boy with blonde hair and blue ever asks you to lay in the floor with him and feel the Earth spin, do it.
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