I have always looked to what's ahead. I'm sure that's why when I was little my grandmother used to preach, "Don't wish your life away!" It's easy to do though, isn't it? When you're little, you want to grow into a teenager to be cool. When you're a teenager, you want to be an adult so that you can call your own shots. Even as an adult, I always looked forward. When I get married... When I have a baby... When I have another baby... When they go to school... When summer comes... Of course I could go on and on.
It was quite a while ago that I realized that you can miss a lot by thinking about the future. Of course there has to be some amount of planning and what not, but if you're always looking ahead - can you ever enjoy now? The first year I was married was an awesome year. We took some sort of vacation or long weekend almost every month. We spent a lot of time with our friends and on our hobbies. We were still in the ga-ga phase. Life was great!
Thank goodness I took lots of pictures to remind me of that, because that was also the first year we tried to get pregnant. It didn't happen quickly. And although trying was fun, I spent most of that year thinking about what it was going to be like when I got pregnant and when we had another little life in our house. I definitely enjoyed that year, but I think I would've enjoyed it more if I had been paying attention to what was going on at the moment instead of always looking to the future.
I recently read Gretchen Rubin's new book "Happier at Home" and one of her resolutions was to "experience the experience." Obviously, this wasn't a new concept to me, but it was a great reminder. It's so easy to think about future goals and aspirations, future vacations, or even to focus on tasks that need to get done. Even when your adorable daughter is in the middle of telling a great story, the mind wanders. But every moment that passes is gone forever - we can't get it back. I don't want to think, "I wish I would've paid attention!" Instead I want to bask in the glory of what is right in front of me, right now!
