Looking back

Last night I was taking a walk with Little A while J took Big A for a spin on her bike. Little A was pushing her little pink stroller and as usual, taking FORever to make her way down the sidewalk. She kept stopping to fix her baby, look at dirt and pick up sticks. A few houses down from ours, a neighbor pulled into her driveway and an older lady got out of the car. She came to talk to us for a minute and as she was leaving made a comment about how long it was taking us. "It takes us an hour to get around the block," I said. And then she said something that gave me pause. "I remember those days. Can't say I miss them."

What? Usually older people seem to look at me with a mixture of longing and nostalgia, so it was kind of odd to hear her say she'd been there, done that, and didn't really miss it. I could kind of see her point, as she got to go into her house and do whatever she wanted while I was travelling down the sidewalk at .1 miles per hour. It kind of shook the thought that often gets me through a day - that I should cherish this time because some day I would miss it. How strange to think that one day I might actually be glad to pass the reigns over and enjoy my own free time. Kind of nice actually, as it's a heavy load to carry to try to make sure you're not squandering precious moments whenever you turn your back.

I guess what I took away from this encounter is that yes, you should enjoy all the moments, but its also okay to look toward the future sometimes and dream about what you might do with all that free time. I'm sure there will be times when I look back and wish I could relive these days, but I also hope there are more times when I'm getting to do cool things (not sure what) that I wouldn't have the time for now.

I might start looking at older people a little differently now. That's probably not longing in their eyes - it might just be them laughing to themselves and being glad that its me, not them.