Life lessons from a one-year-old

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Toward the end of a long day trying to recover the house from Christmas, I realized I did not know where my phone was and had what I would call "missing phone anxiety." It wasn't that I had anything on the phone in particular that I wanted to look at, but I was just anxious that I didn't know where it was. Over the course of 15 minutes or so intensely looking for it, I got more and more anxious and frustrated. I was pacing around the house at an increasingly frantic pace, trying to think of every conceivable place I may have absent-mindedly set it down.  I couldn't find it.

At one point, as I nervously paced toward the living room, my one-year-old daughter grabbed me by my index finger and with her sweet determination, pulled me forcefully toward the Christmas tree and then simply said "down" - as in "sit down, Dad!" She smiled as I sat down with her, and then she looked up at the beautiful tree with sparkling Christmas lights and smiled again as she turned to me and said with excitement, "tree!" Somehow, my phone anxiety slipped away as I simply sat down and focused completely on the present moment of enjoying the tree with her.  She excitedly examined a few ornaments and seemed to be fascinated by each individual Christmas light. We spent the next 45 minutes together next to the tree playing with her brother's new hot wheels cars, attempting to do somersaults (her, not me - somersaults are apparently much more difficult as an adult), and riding dad like a horse (which then didn't quite go so well when her brother also wanted a turn).

About 10 minutes into laughing and playing with Allison, I recalled exactly where I had placed my phone - I remembered that I had set it down on the couch a couple hours earlier when my oldest daughter had approached me and wanted to play games together - but the phone never really mattered.

This seems like such a simple and uneventful story, but it was a great reminder today to slow down and savor the simple joys of the present moment. 

Life lessons from a one-year old.

Comments

  1. debiDecember 27, 2020 at 12:14 AM

    What a precious moment. !! You will always remember the time you took with her to sit by the Christmas Tree. It will become a treasured memory. Enjoy everyone of those moments with all of your kids.

    ReplyDelete

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