Lessons from Henry

By nature I'm a bit of a multi-tasker. A rusher. A to-do list checker. I often find myself trying to get more than one thing done at a once, manage my time efficiently, and make it so at the end of the day I can sit back and say to myself, "yes, I've done it all" (note: this rarely happens).

This isn't always a good thing though, and in the past I've found myself so focused on "what's next" that I failed to notice everything that was right in front of me. Having a child made me realize this more than ever. I see the way Henry takes it all in; to him the whole world is new and exciting. A sunset is not just a sunset- his eyes widen at all of the beautiful colors in our Arizona sky. On our walks he's looking all around. Everything is interesting- the ducks in the pond, the way the water shimmers in the sun, the sound of a plane as it flies by.

Thanks to Henry I'm reminded everyday to take a step back and appreciate the small beauties in life, rather than rushing by them to get to the next thing.  Just the other night I looked outside to see Hank and Henry, looking up at the moon in the backyard. They stood there in perfect silence, Henry pointing upward, and I thought about how lucky we are to have this little person in our life to remind us to enjoy all of these often overlooked moments.