Happy Mother's Day!

For Mother’s Day this year, my gift for my mom was transferring our old home videos from VHS to DVD.  I knew it would be a lot of work – digging through years of VHS tapes, trying to separate the precious family videos from our old recordings of TV shows, etc.

 

What I didn’t expect was to have so much fun revisiting my childhood as I watched these tapes.  They contained what you would expect from any family video collection: year after year of the typical family events. Birthday parties, Christmas mornings, Easter mornings, recitals, and graduations. But there were also videos of us not really doing much of anything. Just riding our bikes, playing in the yard, swimming, licking the brownie bowl, and putting on our very own talent shows with our friends.

What I certainly didn’t expect was the emotion that came with watching them.  What struck me was how happy we were.  We did not have all the latest toys, and we certainly didn’t have any high-tech anything (nothing really existed yet!). But we enjoyed each other, and we loved each other. Obviously I didn’t just now realize that I had a wonderful childhood with loving parents. I knew that already, and I like to think I’ve never taken it for granted. But now I have my own husband and kids. My own family. Which makes me watch from a different perspective. In these videos, my parents were the same age (or younger) that I am now.

How very fast that time has flown by.  Many of those videos were made 25 to 30 years ago. And yet it seems like yesterday in my mind. How quickly we grew up as I fast-forwarded through the years and the memories.  How fun to rewind and re-watch funny or endearing moments. But painful at the same time, knowing that time moves almost as quickly as my fast-forwarding, without the option of rewinding. Knowing that just today I made memories with my kids. Were they good, bad, or in between?  What will they remember about me? What will they see when they look back at old family movies?  I can only pray that I will remember what is important, and not be distracted by all that this world tries to throw at us.

Watching these videos reminds me that the best thing I can do for my kids is to spend time with them. To really BE there with them, not distracted by the many things I could be doing instead. Giving them my time and my undivided attention will make them happier than buying toys or gadgets. That is what will make the best memories, and what will live on in my children’s hearts. I am grateful to my parents for not filling our home with stuff – but filling it with love instead.   And my goal is to do the same for my children.