Courtesy of Upslash by petradr
It had been a particularly long day and I was feeling the weight of things. I came home and felt rushed to prepare dinner and do the usual bedtime routine with my son. I so badly wanted to hurry up and get it all done so that I could scratch off the rest of my to-do list and get to sleep. I hurried up the stairs, son in tow, and plopped him into the bath. I was hoping it would be one of those “quick” bath nights – the drain-the-water-as-soon-as-it-fills-up bath nights. But something shifted as soon as I took a moment to sit down. My back against the bathroom wall, I observed my son as he, wide-eyed, picked up the water-soaked bath sponge in his hand and lifted it above his head. He watched in sheer amazement as the water dripped off the sponge and splashed into the water below. You would have thought a miracle was happening right in front of his eyes. It occurred to me that he was discovering, for the first time, what this sponge could do. And, in this present moment, he was discovering this with the full capacity of his senses. His ears heard the water droplets hit the bath water below. His eyes watched the water release from the sponge as gravity let it fall. He used his hands to feel the full sponge drain to his grip.
By: Christel Gilbreath, LCSW
I realized, while watching him, how beautiful and rare these fully present moments can be for us adults. We get so busy with all of the “stuff” we have to do and all the “stuff” we have planned that we forget to be present for any of it. For me, this bath was a simple, yet profound reminder to slow down. Slow down enough to be amazed by seemingly mundane moments and see things as little miracles – the power of the present moment. My hope – and my hope for you – is that we would be the kind of people who don’t miss the little moments and that we would be fully present and engaged with what is happening right in front of us.
