Best Advice You've Ever Gotten

"This too shall pass."

I use this as a mantra, often, in good times and especially in bad.
When I remind myself that everything is temporary, I am better able to cope.

For example, my toddler is deep into the terrible two's. He was an easy baby, but he is a stubborn, loud, difficult toddler sometimes. He will throw himself to the floor in a tantrum of screaming over the "wrong" sippy cup. It's exhausting, and testing.

But one day, he's going to be all grown up. He's going to leave my house and make his own way. And when that time comes, I will miss this. It's temporary, it's a stage in life, and it will pass by. No matter how bad his tantrum, how short my patience, or how silly our battle, it will shortly pass.

In good moments too, I cannot help but remind myself to savor it, because it will never come again. As strange as this will sound, when I was holding Jace an hour or so after his birth, I was crushed with a little wave of sadness.

He will never be this small again. 

I clung to him every second, sometimes even reluctant to let others hold him, because it was too real that he would grow quickly. I treasured his 2 and 4 am nursing sessions because as I sat there I thought, I will never again have only one to care for. I will not be able to crawl in bed all morning with my next because my next will already have a big brother. 

Life changes, sometimes suddenly, sometimes without even realizing it, but no matter how glorious or terrifying or miserable it is, it will pass. You will keep going forward.

Image courtesy of Ray Davis Photography


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