There's no time like the present...

 Time is a very fluid concept.  I have found that at varying periods in your life, a second can last for an hour, and an hour for a mere instant.  When you have kids, those moments of time become amplified somehow, mutating into unrecognisable intervals.


The most obvious is the bemused feeling you get when your child rushes up to you and gives you a hug, and you realise that their head is touching your ribs.  "Surely just yesterday," you think to yourself, "I was holding this little bundle in my arms, and now here is this person standing, growing taller and more assured, and I don't know when it happened!"  That is three and a half years condensed into a flash.


At other times, the moments seem like they are trapped in amber - slow and viscous, like the time I lost the boys when they went walkabout to the neighbour's place that fateful Halloween.  It felt like they had been gone for about four hours, but, after all the hoopla had died down and they were safe again, I looked at the clock and found they had been missing for exactly two and a half minutes.  Somehow during that time, I had found time to phone the Sweetpea, phone the neighbour, search the entire house and property and managed to run up and down the road carrying a baby, not once, but twice.  Talk about misperception!


To say nothing of the moments leading up to when you first hold a baby in your arms - those nine months of pregnancy are a confusing hodge-podge of time speeding up until you are breathless with it, and then promptly slowing down until you feel like it is barely moving.


However, kids are masters of the art of molding time to suit their purposes.  I am always amused when my lot ask me for a treat.  They always say to me "We haven't had a lolly/jet-plane/sweetie/ice-cream for ages..." looking very forlornly at me.  What amuses me is that they can say this, absolutely deadpan, while still holding the previous treat item (well-chewed, granted, but present, nonetheless), in their grubby little fists.  

"Please give it back to me (the bat or ball or other item that has been used as a weapon against a sibling).  I promise I won't ever ever do that again..."  Not even two seconds later, someone else will have fallen victim to the same weapon if I return it.

"We never go to the park anymore," said in a whiny and whingey voice, when we spent two and a half hours playing in the park this morning.


All of which teaches that the moments of time should be treasured for themselves.  We can't spend time wishing to be in one moment forever, or wishing another to pass us more swiftly, because time is a contrary beast that will do whatever the hell it wants to.  My favourite saying has always been "This too shall pass", and it will - just be careful what you wish for!  You may just get it. 


Rather just sit back - relax, and enjoy the ride!