HERE AND NOW

                   Not a poem.  Just expressing feelings about a wonderful experience.

It’s curious to reflect on the past, when I was a ‘busy’ father.  I have to say, I was truly interested in helping my children, and spending time with them, but it seems there was always a ‘pressing’ or ‘urgent’ need I had to hurry off to, and it seemed to cut short our little visits, discussions and question and answer periods. Now, as I look back, I find myself asking, “Were those pressing distractions all that ‘urgent’?”  Well, who knows, but what I have experienced in the recent past, since becoming a Grandparent is this:  Things just don’t seem all that urgent or pressing, especially when my beautiful five year old Granddaughter asks me a question!
 
Today, she simply picked a partially bloomed Dandelion flower and proudly presented it to me, with those immortal, welcome words, “I Love You”!  THAT was the most beautiful flower I’ve ever received!
 
We looked at it together, and after carefully studying it, I noticed how really intricate even a simple ‘weed’ flower could be, and shared it with Karen.  She then noticed even more detail than I had pointed out, and it led to a truly beautiful time of sharing with each other.....and there was no real ‘pressing’ or ‘urgent’ need.  At least if there WAS, it became totally unimportant.  All that mattered was that there was a need, and the Good Lord gave me the time to answer it.
 
Exciting?  That doesn’t even come close to describing those moments.  Fulfilling?  Yes!  Nostalgic?  Well yes, because it made me think back a few years when Karen’s mother was that size.  I wondered, ‘Did I spend enough time with her, in this way?’  I tell myself, ‘Well, it’s natural, I was much busier then’... but that soft, convicting voice in the innermost depths of my mind makes me wonder if I really did.
 
Well no matter.  The past cannot be altered, nor can the future really be depended on, but these few precious moments, right now.. can be utilized in order to, when reflecting back (later), make for a beautiful past, and a future to really anticipate!
 
What will YOU do with these moments given you, in the “Here and Now”?
 
Some consolation is realized when I observe the GREAT job you’re doing raising Karen, Tam.  Use Each of these moments at hand wisely, then you too, can look back and say, as I do now ... “I must have done SOMETHING right!”
             I Love You Both!           .....Dad & Grandpa