It had been a L O N G , non-stop, action-filled Monday, and I was just finishing a task and looking forward to even half an hour of reading my new book.
“Mom, can you help with my lines?”
I turned around to see my son entering the room, with his script, for the school play, stretched out towards me.
but I really wanted to have down time
he needs me
but I was so tired
this is his last school play
but my cup was almost dry
he graduates high school in June
I pause …
And so, for the next half hour, I read for Jo, Laurie and Mrs. March, as teenage son read the lines of the patriarch of the March family.
In less than six months, he (our youngest) will complete high school.
In less than nine months he plans to go to college.
This is the ending of a season, an era, and it causes me to pause.
As the months have been creeping by, I am noticing that I pause, often. I am asked for a drive to camp (an hour away), to watch a shared TV show, to wake him at an earlier hour, to study for a test, to go through lines for the school play, and I pause …
In that pause I can choose to say yes, or not now. But with each day that slips by, I am more aware that if not now, when?
We all have causes to pause. When we hear of the family whose child died in a house fire, we pause. When a co-worker’s spouse died after she left for work, we pause. When a friend is battling cancer, we pause. When a loved one’s career takes them far away, we pause.
And so yes is more often my, our, response,
because we realize that soon the requests will be few, rare, gone forever.
Now is the time to pause.
itsawonderfilledlife 