Living life, Contentment, Measures

Someone once said that life is what happens to you while you are waiting for something more important to happen. I think that’s what I love about my wife – she doesn’t wait for life to happen to her, she infuses life into our otherwise mundane moments. It keeps me constantly on my toes. I suppose that’s one of the main reasons we keep little ones around us all the time; they live life – especially little Victoria.
I am on nights so Mama has to keep her from getting to me to wake me up too early. So today, I happened to be getting out of bed to use the potty as she and Mama were in a mad dash to do the same thing. Bursting through the bedroom door, running to keep up with Mama Kim she saw me rising off the bed and simply said, “Papa Tim, you wake up!”
“Look Mama Kim, Papa Tim’s wake up!” It was 10 a.m. and I had gotten in bed at 6 a.m.
The more Mama tried to quiet her the more questions she asked. I could hear her fire off one question after another as she did her business; all the while my wife was trying to make her speak more softly. I had to laugh as she was hurried out the door (I was laying down again waiting my turn) she merrily called over her shoulder, “Bye, Papa Tim! See you later.”
Children seem to be so content around my wife and me, maybe because as life happens around them we participate with them in it. It is the small things, no pun intended, that make life worth living, like the spontaneous laughter over silly things said, or competing for time in the bathroom with someone who cannot hold it as long as I can, or letting them win in a contest that they clearly were outmatched in; a race, a wrestling match, or hide-and-seek.
Life for these little ones is only what is happening right at that moment. If it is not happening to them, it is not real. If it is not within their line of sight, it does not exist. If the game is not overly obvious, they cannot enjoy playing it.
When she was very little, one of Victoria’s most common expressions was, “I wake up!” She would say it to us every morning as she came into our house. She would say it after every nap time was over. I realize it was because she was asked each and every time she was awakened, “Are you awake?” or “Did you wake up?” to her it meant, life started over again.
Pleasures are not that simple for me so I enjoy sharing them with those for whom they are really that simple.