Sunday, March 25, 2007

Last week I told you the first five things on my newest top ten list: moments I wish I could relive and why. Here is the conclusion to my list.

6. Liam’s Birth. Most of you know that I’ve attended three childbirths in my life. Live and in person. All three babies were from the same set of parents. By the time I got to number three, I considered myself an expert in how the Mama labored: forever. I got the call for baby number three about four in the morning and given that the first two labors lasted over twenty hours each, I took my sweet time. I did my hair…called in to work…changed my voicemail…fired up the computer…changed my out-of-office auto-reply…and stopped at the gas station for coffee and snacks, because the one thing a laboring Mama did not need was a hungry, grouchy ice-chip-feeder. When I sauntered in the door of the hospital room, I found the Mama surrounded by nurses – about ready to push. After picking my jaw up off the floor, I flew into high speed – grabbing cameras and the video camera. Less than 20 minutes later, Liam was born. I remember nothing about his birth except that it was chaotic. If I had a chance to do that one over, I would have hurried and been able to pay better attention. (Don’t tell his Mom. She, I’m sure, does not want a redo.)

7. The Summer of Swimming. This is one of those carefree, childhood moments that I didn’t appreciate at the time, but I would love to go back and have an attitude of appreciation about now. I grew up out in the country, so there weren’t neighborhood kids to play with like kids in town sometimes have. But when I was in middle elementary school, a family bought the house “next door” (an acre or so away from ours) and they had a son my age. They also had a daughter about three years younger. Their daughter and I, despite our age differences, ended up becoming good friends, and we’d get together in the evenings to play with Barbies or talk about New Kids on the Block (her obsession, not mine) or play house. But one summer, they bought a pool. An above ground, round pool that was all one depth. But still – a pool! That summer, my routine became this: get up, eat breakfast, put on my bathing suit, wait for the call of invitation, go next door, swim all morning, come home for lunch, eat as fast as I could, go back, swim all afternoon, eat an orange push-up for a snack, and come home in time for dinner. It was the only summer I was tan and skinny in my whole childhood. But I loved it! Playing Marco Polo, splashing water, and even running home at high rates of speed through the weedy and no doubt animal-infested vacant lot between our houses…it’s a sweet memory now.

8. First Flight. This past September, I flew for the first time. I was beyond nervous and about threw up when my bag got searched in security. Just as an item of information: if you try to fly with a post-bound scrapbook, the posts apparently look like weapons on the x-ray. On top of that, I was sick with a nasty head cold and so nervous about crashing that I about passed out altogether. I tried valiantly to enjoy every moment of the day, because I knew I’d only have one first flight. But I would love to go back and relive that day – and if I could be so bold as to extend my wish, I’d ask to not be sick this time. I sat by the window but was too chicken to watch the takeoff. We were nearly to descent before I was brave enough to do more than glance out that way. After the flight, my Mom told the attendant that it was my first flight and he gave me a certificate and wings and let me meet the pilot and co-pilot. I completely spaced (cold meds, I’m sure) asking to have my picture taken with them. My one regret. But it was a great day and I would do it over if I could.

9. First Day in the Prayer Chapel. Last April, I finally gave in and obeyed a command God had issued about six months earlier. I walked to the prayer chapel just a few yards from my office and spent a lunch hour in prayer. I had no idea what God had planned, but that day He spoke to me in everything from the floor tile to the pool of colors in the stained glass window shadows to the metal sculpture of Jesus praying in the garden. And when I left the chapel that day, the sidewalk was littered with white petals from whatever kind of trees line the yard of the chapel. It was an exclamation point of something God had said to me – wouldn’t have made a bit of sense to anyone else – but it made me giggle. It also made me wonder why I had waited so long to obey a very simple command. And though I go to the chapel every week now, that first day still holds a really special place in my heart.

10. The Day I Became A Girlfriend. This one seems silly, and I almost took it out, especially considering my college boyfriend and I broke up just a few months after we started dating. But that was the first – and only, actually – time I’ve ever officially carried the title “girlfriend.” I was giddy and ridiculously giggly – calling all my friends, and my mother, of course, to tell them the news I’d waited almost twenty-one years of my life to tell. I couldn’t believe he was actually willing to take that step to consider our story an exclusive relationship. If I’d been able to hold the pen still enough to write, I’d have carried my journal with me all evening and captured every second. As it was, I’m not sure I was coherent enough to write much of anything except EEEEEEE!!!!! when journaling time came that evening. It was a special day, and despite the pain that came with breaking up later, I would relive it just to remember that unique joy. And next time it happens, maybe I will carry the journal just for that day.

So that's my list! And for now, I try to savor every moment as it comes, because no matter how hard you wish, you can't ever redo even one of them.