When our son was just a wee thing, older parents would come up to me with a mix of nostalgia and wisdom on their faces, and say:
“Enjoy this phase. It will never come again.”
“Time will fly by! Hold onto these precious moments.”
“He will grow up before you can even wink!”
These sorts of comments always annoyed me. First off, time was certainly not flying by. Hours stretched on endlessly as I rocked him, nursed him, entertained him, barely having a moment to myself. When he started crawling, we had to watch him even more closely, and once he learned to walk, he could move surprisingly fast with those chubby little legs, which meant lots of half-finished sentences as we ran after him to avoid potential dangers lurking in every corner.
Of course, there was joy and awe, and many moments I cherished, but time had all but come to a standstill in those early years.
Yet now that my son is about to turn seventeen, I understand those older parents who tried to warn me. Time has indeed flown by more quickly than I could have imagined. Where did all those years go? How did he so quickly change from a baby to a toddler? From a little boy to young boy? From a boy to a young man?
As I sit here on the couch on New Year’s Eve of 2023 with my dog in my lap, both of us listening to fireworks going off every few minutes, I have a similarly nostalgic feeling about this year. Where did 2023 go? What did I do with all of that time? What did I accomplish? And how did the time go so quickly?
Luckily, I like taking pictures, and a good portion of what I did this year has been documented by my smart phone. There are plenty of things that aren’t caught digitally, such as fretting about politics, the state of the environment, the ongoing war in Ukraine, the climate refugees, our shifting political landscape, the physical changes each year brings.
But there were a number of accomplishments that stand out for me:
Quality time with my family in the US.
Visiting with Dutch family and celebrating birthdays and holidays together.
Quality time with friends, great conversations, sharing our life experiences, creating new experiences together.
Editing books!
Visiting museums
Walking or running on the beach with friends and Jamie.
Attending book clubs in The Hague and in Schagen.
Getting to know my teenager better. ( I do not have permission to post a representative photo on that account!)
Taking three UC Berkeley extension courses as part of the professional sequence in editing (and getting an A in each course!)
Attending the West Friese Dagen
Having quality time with my husband.
Excursions in The Netherlands.
And not to forget, our annual trip to Luxembourg.
So in retrospect, quite a lot happened in 2023; in fact, much more than I can capture in this post.
Time does seem to be speeding by. What will I do in 2024 to slow down the passage of time? There is only one answer: to be more present in the here and now. There are teachers everywhere who can help with being mindfully present, starting with this four-legged guru.
Signing off for 2023! See you next year!
kristininholland 