Sat 25 Oct 2008
When “event days” happen in our life, I always feel like I need to make sure to take plenty of pictures and remember the day for the future. I figure I will probably look back in 20 years and want to remember “Labor Day Weekend 2008″ or “Halloween 2010″. What did we wear, how did we feel, what a great time we had…
Today is a gray fall day in DC. We went to our local diner for breakfast this morning with my best friend from high school and her family (in town for a high school reunion I avoided…), then our two families wandered lazily around downtown Silver Spring, enjoying the last day of this season’s farmer’s market and looking at construction equipment at the site of a new ice skating rink.
We got home and settled down for lunch. Around that time it started raining, so we knew our plans to take Emma to the Takoma Park Halloween parade weren’t going to happen. I put on some James Taylor and Mike put some tomato soup on the stove and we sat down to eat.
At some point during lunch, with a long unplanned afternoon before us, rain pounding on the roof, James Taylor in the background and Emma laughing at daddy making funny faces at her, I had the feeling that I wanted to freeze the moment in time. There had been nothing particularly remarkable about our day, and it certainly wasn’t going to be marked on the calendar or show up in an annual photo album. But something about the moment felt safe and comfortable and reflective of our life on those non-”event” days.
I filled up with emotion and got all teary (which happens almost daily recently - not sure if it is the possibility of an Obama Presidency or the hormones related to pregnancy - or maybe both?) and tried to imprint the moment in my brain so that I would one day be able to remember a random day in October when just living became an event of it’s own.
I know I won’t have much trouble recalling Christmases and birthdays in years to come, but I hope I am able to equally remember little moments like today. Moments of our everyday that reflect the essence of our family, our love for each other and our life together.