"This is just a moment..."

Yesterday I came across an article I’d torn out. In the article, Julianna Marguilies tells a story about an ‘aha!’ moment in parenting. She’s exhausted from working all day, and her baby is up screaming in the middle of the night. She works herself into a lather wondering how she’s going to get her screaming baby to stop, compounded by the fact that she’ll be exhausted the next day. Then wisdom from her mother is remembered, “Honey, this is only a moment; it’s not the rest of your life.” Realizing this in the heat of the moment, she relaxed, the baby calmed down, and she felt grounded again. She went to work the next day, on three hours sleep, but she made it through the day (albeit with bags under her eyes) just fine. I can relate to her when she says, “I’m a doer, and I’m always thinking about what’s next on my list.” But this simple little phrase makes so much sense in keeping me living in the present too. And so, when I wake up to too many things on my to-do list and one child home from school sick, I ride the day thinking, “this is just a moment; it’s not the rest of my life.” Most things can wait until tomorrow, I can go to yoga next week, and there is a sniffly someone who wants to be read to right now.