Isn’t it wonderful to realize, it is only after one has gazed hard into the eyes of babies that it dawns on you the future has already arrived? Innocent as all infants are, their mere presence is enough to make it appear the future’s proverbial foot is already halfway inside this, our present’s door.
This is why I believe one of life’s most profound blessings is having to watch the parade of babies in one’s family. A close second is later witnessing how they slowly grow up and mature and be their own person through the years.
Me and my remaining siblings are witness to what my departed parents have seen and almost-childishly gawked at before. We share their happiness. Happily, all feel fortunate to be discovering this wondrous parade before us. In a magical way for me, it is as if I am reliving and witnessing it through my departed parents’ eyes.
Aside from its religious theme, last Easter Sunday’s celebration at our parents’ home a.k.a the mothership, was one that had me arrive at this very realization. Surely, it must have only been four or five years ago, when those once-tiny rug rats were yet comfortably-snug in the protective wings of their nanas and doting mums.
Now, with some of them already wildly-running about and others grown into more independent individuals, the speed by which time has gone has clearly become more evident and plain as day. While we, the adults, might have likewise grown and significantly-aged during these few years alongside them, it is quite ironic how our perspective of them has somehow remained frozen in time.
In our mind’s eye, we still perceive them as the babies they once were. The simple truth remains, while they forge ahead to meet their future and do whatever they make of it, every tiny step is one significant step away from us. When the time comes to have children of their own, I only wish they too would arrive at my earlier realization… perhaps they will likewise see that the future has come, like a foot in the door of their own present time. Only by then, the circle would have finally been complete and still remain unbroken.
