remember your life

“What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it.”
― Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez

By the end of the day, I've already forgotten "the funniest thing" my son said.  He caught me off guard in his innocent, matter-of-fact way, and I laughed.  I laughed so hard that surely the memory would somehow indelibly adhere.  So poignant.  So hysterical.  All forgotten...

People say you should write this stuff down, and I do....sometimes.  I have a notebook and a small calendar I hunt down before the aging trap door of my mind loses the moment forever.  Children are so reactive and uncensored.  They blurt and observe and appreciate a simplicity that comes from a 3-foot perspective and a life experience involving little more than sandboxes and applesauce.

I find that life can be remembered in two different ways: task or observation.

wake up kids.
breakfast.
drop off at school.
errands.
clean up.
pick up.
dinner.
bed.

vs.

The sun has cast the most amazing glow on the curls falling in Ellery's quiet, sleeping face.
Syd said, "Mom, you really outdid yourself with the french toast today."
Does anybody ride the bus anymore?
Met sis at car wash; Jude tumbled in her van while I vacuumed mine; I love
     bumping and fumbling in eachother's lives like we do.
How come dirty dishes piled in the sink look so bad, while clean dishes
     drying on the other side look so much better?
Again with this endless snaking line of cars around the school?
Asparagus made a few enemies tonight.
Is it possible the kids could go to bed without wandering out again to
     address some phantom injury or need for water or some ridiculous issue
     with a sibling?

***

Here is a real-life entry from my "memory" calendar on September 12, 2012:

"Had to tell Jude to stop eating the salt today.  When I asked Sydney to look up a word in dictionary, she threw her hat, stormed off muttering 'stupid person who invented English!'  Then, Aidan said, 'Then we would just have a Spanish dictionary...'  Forgot trash day.  Ellery screams A LOT!"

***

Thankfully, we have access to a camera 24/7 thanks to Apple, Samsung, Blackberry...
Cameras can capture the joy and the beauty, but also the awkward and embarrassing.  Click away, my friends, and you will not be disappointed.

Memories fade so quickly, and in blink are gone.  Jotting a note or clicking a quick picture (and having an extra battery for camera because it just ran out) are tools to keep those memories alive.  Before long, you're looking back at things you have forgotten, and there it is, in black-and-white or photo paper staring back at you like it came from a different life.  But, no.  It was your life, and now you hold a gift.  The gift of a memory that will suspend an age never to return, or pour around you a day full of sights and sounds and emotions long since gone.  You pause and remember and grab hold of what your life has been, a story that still intrigues you, and you see that you have something real to show for it all.

So parents, take a moment today to remember your ongoing life.

Never may I forget the day baby girl tried to eat mulch,
  or the creamy purity of baby skin,
  or the varied positions their bodies found sleep,
  or the day I sat on the toilet, 7 months pregnant, 2-year-old waiting at my knees, while my 4-year-old son called from the opposite end of the house: "MOM!"  "What!!!" I shout back.  "I have something on my finger and I don't know what it is!"  Taking stock of what I know of him and a good dose of mother's intuition, I replied, "Is it a booger?"
A pause..... "It doesn't taste like a booger!"

Or, last week:  when I didn't know how to finish a post for this blog.  I needed one last thought to wrap it up.  I was stuck, and my niece said, "Why don't you just write 'The End' in a really cool font?"

THE END

****

please share your kid's funniest moments or thoughts, 

email me at: jencalbert@gmail.com  to be included on a future post