My home office window faces the backyard, where one of our plumeria trees is currently blooming (and yes, it’s 80 degrees in central Florida in November so everything is still blooming). I don’t know what it is about these flowers but I just LOVE them…the blooms are so simple but so lovely and they smell incredible and just seeing those little flowers on my tree every morning makes me happy.
The thing is, the blooms don’t last very long. After a short while, they shrink and turn brown and fall to the ground. Luckily, there’s usually another bloom ready to take it’s place.
It reminds me of childhood….
How the things my girls are crazy about today will soon be replaced by something new. Legos (that are normally scattered all over the living room floor, waiting for my bare feet) will be forgotten, only to sit on the shelf in our living room, collecting dust. Their American Girl dolls, dressed in clothing that MY dolls wore when I was a little girl, will become just another toy, forgotten under the bed or in the doll basket. Making up songs and dances for dinner theater at our house will be replaced with texting friends and hanging out at Starbucks, drinking Pink Drinks.
Every age and every stage they go through is beautiful (well, mostly….the tantrums weren’t much fun, TBH). But, for better or for worse, these phases are short-lived. Truth be told, one of the reasons I became a photographer was to help me “cope” with watching my babies grow into the young women they are becoming.
And what I've learned along the way is that it's not just about the "big" moments. I used to think it was. But as I look at the Legos (that sit on the shelf for longer and longer periods of time) and the American Girl dolls (that may go untouched for days at a time), I realize how important all of those little moments are in helping my "babies" bloom.