We all find ourselves saying at some stage, “I can’t wait until…..”. This something you can’t wait for maybe simple as “I can’t wait until the weekend”, or “I can’t wait till I go away next year”. Or it maybe you “can’t wait until you’ve paid off the house”. It wasn’t until I heard my daughter utter the words “I can’t wait until Matilda says her first word” or “I can’t wait until Charlie gets out of nappies” that I remembered back in the day when my daughter was a baby followed by her two brothers I was constantly saying “I can’t wait until the next stage of the babies development” – whatever the next stage was. Then when you have three kids at home you can’t help but say “I can’t wait until they go to school” followed a few years later with “I can’t wait until they’re old enough to drive themselves to soccer”.
I told my daughter that what she’s doing now doesn’t get any better so enjoy “the now”. The best years of my life was being a stay at home Mum with 3 kids. But I too uttered the very words my daughter does and I continue to this day utter “I can’t wait until….”!
When I look back at my life it seems to me that I’ve lived from one can’t wait moment to the next. Does this mean I’ve never lived for ‘the now’? Have I never reached a stage in my life when I’ve reached the “can’t wait” moment and felt a sense of achievement?
It’s obvious to me that I’ve never lived for the now, so what should I do about it? Maybe I should have thought about that years ago when I started to dream about the life I couldn’t wait to achieve.
When I see my daughter being a full-time Mum, taking the kids to swimming lessons, dance classes, playgroup, play-dates in the park on a beautiful sunny day, I remember how simple life was for me doing the same things years ago, how important my role was in bringing up my kids. Of course the pay sucked but I ran my own little business, ran a tight timetable with many enjoyable events thrown in. Everything I did mattered, at least to my kids. Maybe what I should have been saying is “I can wait” because what I’m doing now is great and when my life moved to the next stage, again I should have said “I can wait”!
Now life’s ticking away and I’m still saying “I can’t wait”…but I can wait, I have no choice because what I’m doing now is what I’ve been saying I can’t wait for all along. I guess the old saying is so very true – be careful what you wish for.
Very true! We all do this when we should be enjoying the here and now! Thank you x