Here is to us all developing a heart for children.

For innocence. For wonder. For adventure. For posterity.

For the awe in the face of a child going to the zoo for the first time.

How beautiful and fleeting it all is.

Let’s never lose the perspective that G. K. Chesterton had.

His sense of wonder gave him a love of children, and he fabricated great schemes to involve them and enflame their imaginations. He once organized the Society for the Encouragement of Rain, which in England was not unlike creating an organization devoted to the preservation of snow in Alaska. Chesterton made membership cards and named his wife’s niece as President Rhoda Bastable and himself Secretary G. K. Chesterton. The bylaws of the organization required meetings to be held “on the Salisbury Plain where under the sign of an umbrella members were invited to partake of cakes and coffee in the rain.” Keep in mind that this man we see creating a fictional society with children was described by one scholar as “one of the deepest thinkers who ever existed.”  A pope called him a gifted defender of the faith. Even one of his greatest opponents said that the world is not thankful enough for him. And his biographer, Dale Alquist, argued, “G. K. Chesterton was the best writer of the twentieth century. He said something about everything, and he said it better than anybody else.” Yet Chesterton dreamed of coffee on the Salisbury Plain with children—in the rain—and could not go to the store for milk without forgetting where he was meant to be because he was pondering the meaning of pocket lint.

–Stephen Mansfield, Mansfield’s Book Of Manly Men (Amazon)

Life changes.

Time changes and pushes us forward.

I know that – I mean – we all know that.

But before it does, I want to pause and remember.

I want to remember this perfect and fleeting time.

I want to cherish it and hold it for just one more second.

It is a time of little sleep and grumpy mornings.
– A time of craving coffee, more so than usual.
– A time of long nights and short days.
– A time of naps on the weekend between noon and three.
– A time of early morning weekend swimming lessons.
– A time of RSV, the flu, stomach bugs, hand-foot-and-mouth, and more diapers than a man could count.

It is a time of princess dresses and foam swords.
– A time of plastic toys covering the floor.
– A time of washing hands, over and over again.
– A time of cuddling on the couch, and rocking babies to sleep.
– A time of nothing but cartoons on the TV.
– A time of never ending curiosity.

It is a time of soft tears and hard tantrums.
– A time of pushing the boundaries and looking for reassurance.
– A time of ferocious tickling and laughing until you nearly cry.
– A time of hearing your child yell “Again, again” when you can do no wrong.
– A time of playgrounds, and slides.
– A time of magic and beauty in everything.

It is a time of toddlers and infants.
– A time of dress-up parties and dance parties.
– A time of riding on daddy’s shoulders, and a time of daddy being able to carry both his children around at the same time.
– A time of falling asleep at the zoo, and first airplane rides.
– A time of kissing bruises better.
– A time of wanting nothing more than mom.

It is a perfect time.
A time I want to hold onto forever.