Don't Blink

Last night did NOT go as planned.  I was supposed to go over to the Yellow House to watch a Christmas movie with my favorite Helen.

BUT... when I texted her to verify this plan about 3pm, she informed me that instead of a nice, quiet movie night, we were having nice, chaotic video game night. Now before you start thinking that I was upset and not ok with this, I must tell you that this little tid bit of information actually excited me!

You see, our summer brother couldn't believe that we'd never played video games ever before in our lives, and he insisted that sometime before the summer was out (at which time he will be leaving us to go... well... far away... to college... like that's important or something...) we would play video games.  So last night was the night.

When I arrived at the Yellow House, game-mode was in full swing.  It was a full house!  Summer brother Caleb, his friends Patrick & Matthew, and our friend Fogell were all present.  I found my sister sitting in a chair working on some crazy little gameboy-type thing (probably it wasn't a gameboy, but... how would I know!), and Carah had Brooke over. So much fun!

Since I didn't actually get to play anything until about 10pm, I just sat on the sofa and observed.  And as I sat there,  it hit me: this won't last forever.  In a few short weeks, Caleb will leave for college, and Helen will be back in school. Shortly thereafter, Fogell will leave for basic. 

And where will I be?  What will change in my life? 

Nothing.  I will go back to being the responsible adult I pretend to be.  My evenings will be *hopefully* filled with letter writing and skype dating and phone calling and texting, trying desperately to hold on to these newfound friends who are like family.

As I pondered these things, beginning to feel sad and depressed, I took a good look around me.  I realized that NOW isn't the time to feel sad and depressed.  No!  NOW is the time for me to soak in all these precious little moments, the sweet memories of summer and friends and family and fun. NOW is the time to burn all these moments into my memory so that in a few short weeks when life does a 180, I will still have these memories to keep me company.

So for the next few weeks as life goes on around me, I have determined to not focus on what's coming, but rather to focus on what IS... to make memories- good ones- and to write it all down so I don't forget.

We all have moments such as these in our lives.  Don't let the "what's next" make you miss out on the "what's now."

Oh, and by the way:  although Helen did a pretty fantastic job of holding her own  in the video gaming against the troop of guys, I... didn't fare so well.  As I told them all last night, "I have many talents... and I'm pretty sure this just isn't one of them!"