When my first child was born, a certain quote became very important to me. I found it in a stash of newspaper clippings in a box of odds and ends that was passed to me after my grandmother died. I had this little clipping for years, but in my first year of motherhood, this quote became increasingly important to me and kept me in check when I got in a hurry:
“Happiness is a quiet lover and we don’t realize she has embraced us until she has gone.”
I don’t know the context of the quote or why it was written. But in my imagination, it was written by an old man looking back on his life who realized the happiness he spent his younger years looking for was once in his possession. This quote sounds like a lament that he didn’t enjoy those fleeting moments while he had them.
There were many days, especially when my children were babies, when I found myself wishing the days and hours and long nights away. But this quote would come haunting me. Then I could see the joy in being needed. I could hear the echoes of grandmothers remembering their early years of motherhood with such fondness. I could stop and recognize happiness, though she was often seen through blurry vision.
And now that my family enters the stage where children begin to gain some independence, I still keep that quote tucked inside my heart, reminding me to take the time to appreciate the happiness that walks with me hand in hand now.
No matter where you are in your life, there are moments of joy and happiness for all of us. And the happiness is with us more than we realize. So I hope this quote inspires you today like it did me to recognize those moments when you see them, and don’t let the lure of tomorrow rob you of the sweetness of today.