Normal Days

I’ve had a sick toddler for nearly two weeks, and sleep has been scarce for just as long. She only wants to be held, and around 4:30 every morning, it seems as if she might be trying to actually crawl inside my neck. She tries every possible configuration of her face fitting perfectly above my collarbone, but to no avail. Squirm, try again, then the other side, on repeat. I am tired but have also found myself smiling in the wee hours, knowing this kind of dependency and affection is ever so fleeting.

While I am desperate to sleep more than a few hours at a time, I know I’ll be even more desperate one day to get these moments back. Not of her being sick, of course, just the day in and day out of raising a family. The day in and day out of the million little, seemingly insignificant things that we all do to just keep life moving. It’s made me reflect on this quote, one of my favorites of all time:

Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are.
Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart.
Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow.
Let me hold you while I may, for it will not always be so.
One day I shall dig my nails into the earth
or bury my face in the pillow,
or stretch myself taut,
or raise my hands to the sky,
and want more than all the world your return.
-Mary Jean Iron