“The Days are Long, But the Years are Short.”

At the grocery store when Eleanor was maybe a month or so old, a nice older woman struck up a conversation with us about children. As a mother of three, and a grandmother of many, she advised us to remember that “The days are long, but the years are short.” Elles was still new. Bud was still on paternity leave at the time, and we were all still enjoying leisurely summer days playing outside with the kids and relishing the joy of having a new baby. So we smiled and registered the advice, tucking it away in the back of our brains to be digested and fully understood at a later date. Like now. January of 2023. When I am just now getting to edit and post the photos from August of 2022 onto our family’s blog. Looking at these photos, I’m thinking- Wow, River looks younger in this photo. Must be a trick of the camera; this was only last week. Nope, it was FIVE months ago! How did five months go by in the space and time of what feels like a week? Apparently, having children changes the way we experience time. 

So, yes, the years do become shorter. When I first considered the woman’s maxim, I thought, How could the days be long? We are so busy. There’s no time to be bored. But now I understand. The days are long because there is so much to do. Eleanor wakes up at 5:30am. And from that first snuggle, every moment of the day is filled, filled with diapers and food prep and dishes and baths. It’s also filled with kisses and snuggles and books and singing. It is both duty and beauty that fill our days, but they are filled to the top. Until the minute we crawl into our bed at night, exhausted. 

And so, I’ve been thinking back to the wise woman we met at the grocery store months ago. And on days when I’m just waiting for night to come so I can wipe the counter for the last time, put the prepped food into the refrigerator, check on the sleeping babies on the monitor, and finally fall asleep myself, I try to remember, these just may be the best fleeting days of my life.