Perfect Moments in Time

I drove past an ornamental snowman in someone’s yard this morning and it made me cry. Why you might ask? Well it’s because last New Year’s Eve, Lexie and Andrew and I, after midnight, when all was quiet, cold, and snowy and everyones Christmas lights were still on, went for a little walk in the neighborhood. Andrew was going back to Vancouver in a few days and we were trying to savor him. I remember both kids being dressed up like eskimos and their silhouettes stood ominous in the light of the street lamp. We had to plow through calf high drifts just to get off the driveway. Just on the next block to our house we came upon that same snowman and I took a picture of him. In fact, a video, because he was surrounded by moving lights and it was so beautiful and magical. And even though all was not perfect in our life, for that one moment in time, it felt like it was. It was a silent night, a holy night and a gloria in excelcious deo night because I was with my family enjoying this moment in time. My saner husband was at home in bed where it was warm and snuggly but I was out in the cold, snowy, quiet, beautiful middle of the night with my two adult kids.

There have been other perfect moments in time. Such as the night this summer when the kids and I lay on my aunts dock on the lake at midnight and picked out constellations and watched for falling stars as the waves rocked the dock up and down. A warm balmy night as we watched the lights from the cabins across the lake and listened to families talk and laugh on other docks. The night sky and water so clear that the stars were reflected in the lake. Once again, mike had retired for the evening but there I was etching this memory into my heart and soul. Once again, all was not perfect in life, but for that moment in time, it was.

I usually catalogue these moments in my mind to remind myself, when things seem far from perfect and we are tough slogging it, that I have had, we have had, experiences of perfection. Taking the family to Hawaii, volunteering at Samaritans Purse together, Easter and thanksgiving in Vancouver just to be with the kids. Taking Andrew to University as a family and getting everything he needed for the year from Walmart and IKEA, then bringing it back to the dorms to set up. The cop stopping us on the Coquihalla for speeding in our rental car. Christmas mornings. Getaways to our friends cottage in the middle of winter, sitting around the fireplace, watching movies. Impromptu car rides to Starbucks just before closing, on a hot July evening, with the windows wide open and the music blaring, and flip flops on our feet, laughing at anything and everything.

Perfection for me is the four of us, together, anywhere, anytime, basking in our familyness. These precious, perfect moments in time remind me that it hasn’t all been hard, all the time. Because let’s face it, sometimes it feels like it has all been hard all of the time and when will we ever get to come up for air and feel the glorious sunshine of Gods favor on us again, or ever? These moments remind me that I have had it all, even if just for a moment in time. I am of all women most blessed. And she pondered all these things in her heart.
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