The short years
I heard it one day on my morning jog, just as I was rounding the corner at Seventh and Takena. The song "Pink Bullets," by The Shins, contains the following lyric:
the years have seemed short, but the days go slowly by
That line suddenly seemed incredibly profound to me (but maybe that was the lack of oxygen in my poor non-athletic brain). It really seemed to sum up my life since becoming a mother.
I cannot count the number of times I have thought, "Will this day ever end?" Days when tantrums and diapers and squabbles and laundry really seemed to weigh me down, when contentment seemed far away, when I kept staring at the clock, waiting for the blessed hour of bedtime to arrive.
And then on the other hand, I look at my oldest daughter (who starts preschool tomorrow), and my middle daughter (who is no longer the baby, but the cutest two-year-old I've ever met), and my youngest daughter (Holy cow! I have three kids?) and I wonder just when all of this happened to me. Those days may go slowly by, but the years have been extremely short.
As a matter of fact, a lot of things in my life right now are short. I spend my days with little short people. They have short attention spans, and I read them short books and take them for short walks and do a hundred different things in short bursts of time all day long.
At the same time, I know that these years will not last forever. The next time I pause to catch my breath, my girls are going to be half-way grown-up and these long days, the days when they need me so constantly, will be nothing but a memory. The short years will not last forever.
New school year, new season, new beginnings...the time seemed right for a new name for this blog, and the lyric I am co-opting presented itself at just the right time, as I was searching for something more interesting than "Jen's Page." As I've said before, I did not really select a name for this blog but just typed in the first words that came to my head when I was filling out the blog set-up form. Back then, more than four years ago, I had no idea that I would ever continue posting here, nor that it would become a form of self-expression, a constant creative writing exercise, an online family scrapbook, and a way to connect with others.
And so: welcome to The Short Years. My new name for this same old blog. The URL won't change, just the title. If you link to me, you may change your link if you want, but I won't be worried about it if you don't. I hope you continue to enjoy my tales of motherhood. Thanks for coming along with me through these far-too-short years.
the years have seemed short, but the days go slowly by
That line suddenly seemed incredibly profound to me (but maybe that was the lack of oxygen in my poor non-athletic brain). It really seemed to sum up my life since becoming a mother.
I cannot count the number of times I have thought, "Will this day ever end?" Days when tantrums and diapers and squabbles and laundry really seemed to weigh me down, when contentment seemed far away, when I kept staring at the clock, waiting for the blessed hour of bedtime to arrive.
And then on the other hand, I look at my oldest daughter (who starts preschool tomorrow), and my middle daughter (who is no longer the baby, but the cutest two-year-old I've ever met), and my youngest daughter (Holy cow! I have three kids?) and I wonder just when all of this happened to me. Those days may go slowly by, but the years have been extremely short.
As a matter of fact, a lot of things in my life right now are short. I spend my days with little short people. They have short attention spans, and I read them short books and take them for short walks and do a hundred different things in short bursts of time all day long.
At the same time, I know that these years will not last forever. The next time I pause to catch my breath, my girls are going to be half-way grown-up and these long days, the days when they need me so constantly, will be nothing but a memory. The short years will not last forever.
New school year, new season, new beginnings...the time seemed right for a new name for this blog, and the lyric I am co-opting presented itself at just the right time, as I was searching for something more interesting than "Jen's Page." As I've said before, I did not really select a name for this blog but just typed in the first words that came to my head when I was filling out the blog set-up form. Back then, more than four years ago, I had no idea that I would ever continue posting here, nor that it would become a form of self-expression, a constant creative writing exercise, an online family scrapbook, and a way to connect with others.
And so: welcome to The Short Years. My new name for this same old blog. The URL won't change, just the title. If you link to me, you may change your link if you want, but I won't be worried about it if you don't. I hope you continue to enjoy my tales of motherhood. Thanks for coming along with me through these far-too-short years.
6 comments:
Next thing you know they are off to college and not even homesick. Enjoy these times they are certainly 'the short years".
I really like that title. And I love the new graphic too.
Love it! (Although you did give me a fright this morning when I couldn't understand where you were in my feed reader!)
The new look and the title are great! Very nice!
I love the banner and new name! I realized a couple months ago that Seth, at age 4 and a couple months was 1/4 of the way to being 18!! Scary. I was reminded to really make the most of these short years, even on the LOOOONG days. Hope Beth has a marvelous time at preschool!
I remember Sarah's preschool teacher (and it was, oh my Lord in heaven, THREE OH-SO-SHORT YEARS AGO now) saying, at the conclusion of the year, "Ladies and gentlemen, the class of 2018." Tears came to my eyes. That year seemed even then to be so very very close, and now that it's 2008-almost-09, and she starts third grade tomorrow, I can feel the tears again.
Beautiful name, beautiful post.
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