Autumn Treasures

and how quickly they are gone

“Look, daddy, look what we found.” Suni and Jessie stood right beside me. Visibly thrilled about their newfound treasures.

In one hand, Suni was holding a old beat-up Kleenex box. It was full of…something. Actually, it was full of a lot of somethings. The quick glance I gave it wasn’t nearly long enough to figure out what was inside. In her other hand, a clear zippered cosmetic bag with Liz Claiborne on side. I think they pilfered that from their oldest sister, but who could really know? I sneaked another quick look at the old tissue box. Still couldn’t see what was inside.

Suni started to remove her treasures from her box. “Look at this one, Daddy, it looks like a leaf inside of a leaf.” She showed me one that really did have a leaf pattern on it. A leaf inside of a leaf. The box was full of freshly fallen leaves.

“Where did you get these?” I asked, slowly turning the leaves to get a look at the patterns on the undersides. Neat.

“From the yard. I want to show them to you.” Came her simple reply. Duh, where else? Its not like my kids have free reign of the town, right?

“Those are cool, honey. I really like them.” I said and handed them back. Ok, fatherly duties complete. Place a check beside Look at daughter’s autumn treasures. Off to the next item on the list. Hmmm, wonder what there is to eat?

“Here, daddy.” She said thrusting the Liz Claiborne bag into my hands. Sunni can be quite persistent at times. “I want to show them to you.”

“Uhh, all of them?” It was a big Kleenex box, and it was full. Really full.

“Yes, all of them. I will show them to you and you put them into the plastic bag.”

Umm…hold the phone, little one…I am done here. I looked at the pretty leaves. Said I liked them. Said they were cool. Did the whole Dad thing, right? I am ready to move on. All the leaves were pretty much the same, right? We didn’t need to look at each one separately. How about just a sampling of the whole box?  Suni, show me 10 percent and that will give us a good idea of what the rest look like. Or maybe we could just dump them all and admire them all at once. Fast, easy and we can both be on our way. Suni to some seven year old fun and me to…whatever.

“I want to show them to you. All of them.” She said so innocently and softly.

At that moment, I had a conscious choice to make. Do I give her the time she wants/needs or do I selfishly choose to brush her off and do whatever I feel is important at the moment?

My mind was suddenly a whirl of rationalization. They are just leaves. The last leaves of autumn haven’t even fallen yet. There will be more. If not this year, there will always be next autumn. And the next after that. We have plenty time to spend together. She is only seven. We have lots of time. Right? Right??

Too many times I have fed myself the same lines. The truth is we don’t have nearly as much time as we think. In what will seem like the blink of an eye my Littles will turn into tweens and then teens. Shortly after they will spread their wings and soar off on adventures of their own. Attending college, perhaps. Starting a family and raising children of their own. They may even be far away from home. Days quickly morph into weeks then months. The months fade into years and suddenly time has swiftly swept past, never to return.

Our lives are like a vapor, the Good Book says. Just a quick breeze briefly blowing across a solitary plain, forgotten as soon as it whips by. Simply a wisp of a wind jammed full of memorable moments, love and family, and sometimes sorrow and pain, that soon vanishes over the far horizon as if it was never actually there.

The choice is yours. The choice is mine. Let the little moments blow past us and disappear forever or cherish and embrace every one while we still have them.

This time I made the right choice.

Suni and Jessie probably had close to 100 leaves.

We admired each one. One by one. They were beautiful. And so were the leaves.

Autumn treasures come and go so quickly. Take advantage of every moment before they slip away forever.

 

I am sure you will have plenty of special times with your kids during the fall. Take a moment and share them with us below or over on Facebook. I would love to hear about them. 

Please note I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or lean way off topic.