Three Months Back

Some days you just want time to circle back around and give you another opportunity to fully appreciate moments you squandered.

Three months back...

I'd see Dad one more time and talk for a long, long time about anything at all. We'd go out to eat, and this time we'd make that trip to Red Lobster that he kept saying he wanted to make sometime soon. I'd reminisce about stories I barely recalled from my childhood, and question him endlessly about events from his own childhood, and listen to him talk and laugh and look at the glint in his eyes as he spoke of Mom.

And I'd feed Tisha her childhood favorite--Nine Lives Tuna with Cheese--and wipe her eyes and comb her until she fell asleep, and I'd listen to her rattling purr and my heart would be at ease.

It is the ephemerality of joy that makes its presence so precious. If only we could realize that from the moment we awoke every day of our lives...