Watching Time Fly

Grace has taken to clock-watching lately, fascinated by the way a number changes every 60 seconds. This morning as she helped me prepare a scrambled egg for her breakfast (she hands me an egg, helps me pour the milk into the bowl, adds cheese and stirs), she noticed the zero on the clock in the time 8:30. "Mom, there's a zero! What do you think the zero will turn into?" I asked her what she thought. She replied: "I think a one. Let's watch!" I laughed, stood there holding her and patiently waited for it to become 8:31. She then asked, "What do you think the one will turn into?" and answered her own question, "Two." She said again, "Let's watch!" So we stood in front of the stove for several minutes simply watching time pass. That is, until I became a little disturbed by the idea that we were watching time pass before us.


Grace, at two years three months, measures time by changes of numbers on a clock. What she doesn't realize yet is that whether she's watching or not, time is going to fly. Today she is distracted by Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, her books, and her kitchen set. Before she knows it it will be lunch time, nap time, bedtime. Before she knows it today will be gone. It will be Christmas, springtime, her birthday, kindergarten. This is what I thought of as we watched the clock--that while she wants to see time move, I want it to stand still so I can make scrambled eggs with my little munchkin forever.

My brother's quote on his Facebook page is a line from Ferris Bueller's Day Off that says, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while you could miss it." What wisdom! I so appreciate that Grace brought that to my attention today. It's so easy to become absorbed in ouselves--our happiness, our exhaustion, our responsibilities, our fun, our jobs, our feelings...our pride--that we forget that the world is happening. Now. The people we love are aging, changing, the happy moments are fleeting, and we have to be a part of it. Now. Because there is no guarantee of tomorrow. And even if there were, it would be gone before we know it. And once it's gone, we can never get it back.

8:32...8:33...8:34.....