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Cherish the Moment
By Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle 

‘I have a dream, I want to be a scientist one day!” I found these words on a piece of gray construction paper which were written in my five year-old son’s best penmanship along with his drawing of test tubes. His dream was expressed twenty-four years ago and I smiled as I imagined the exuberance and the innocence in which he wrote his statement.

I thought about how my little son had grown up into a twenty-nine year-old man and how his dreams have changed many times over the years.  While he did not pursue that dream to be a scientist, he is certainly very intelligent, creative, and busy investigating life. Where did the time go? I ask myself the same question each year when this first born has another birthday.

Recently, my daughter was home on a break from college and decided we should get going on the garage cleaning project that we previously hadn’t had time for. So, we were knee deep into it when I discovered my son’s school paper along with tons of other good stuff. It seemed as if a time capsule had exploded in my garage as my daughter and I shuffled through all of the papers and memorabilia that were saved in cardboard boxes and taken from place to place as we changed residences over the years. These were the boxes that were marked “Important, school papers,” or “childhood memories.” With each move, we took the boxes with us and stored them away in the attic or garage, hoping to look through them one day. That’s just what we were doing that afternoon as we attempted to bring order to our long neglected garage.

I’ll be honest. I have been called a pack rat on more than one occasion.  Thanks, guys!  It’s because I am a mother.  I have trouble parting with remnants from my children’s pasts, so I save a lot of them, well, most of them!

My daughter and I laughed and reminisced the many funny stories of everyone growing up – all five of them.  We could almost hear the conversations, laughter and tears of times past during our day to day experiences with each other in our family.

Life is Precious

Life is precious, a gift to us from our Lord to use with care.  Many cherished moments, woven together form our lifetime.  We choose to a certain extent how we want our life to unfold, by responding in one way or another to what our Lord gives us.  We can proceed, running through our days – oblivious to the blessings that surround us and in the opportunities of grace that our Lord presents to us each day and really each moment of our lives. Or we can consider how we will respond to this precious life, full of blessings and opportunities that we have been gifted with.  

We stand here in the present moment, remembering our fond memories of the past, our treasured moments with family and friends.  We look forward to our future, all of our tomorrows - with hope in our hearts. 

Live in the Present Moment

We must remember though, to live in this moment now, cherishing it, experiencing it, trying hard not to run to the next thing we are scheduled to do. We can seek a closer union with our Lord, right here, right now, setting an example for those around us, responding in love to everything and everyone that we are privileged to encounter, the good and the bad, the happy and the sad. We can seek to serve our Lord now in our moments of today.

It’s important to hold onto this present moment for all it’s worth. Let’s seek the opportunities of each day and really live them and embrace them.  Life is given to us to be lived to the fullest.  Let’s not let the opportunities for love and grace pass us by.  And, let’s not forget to enjoy them right now.

By the way, if you happen to be in the neighborhood, don’t peek in my garage windows just yet because I am not finished. This project may take a while.  I’m enjoying my present moment. But, I will do my best to complete this job of tidying up the garage and I’ll try to resist the urge to hang each and every piece of the art work up on the garage walls!

© 2006 Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle

6/04/06

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