You know now how brief it is. What a fleeting, wonderful thing it is.
Youth.
How flexible you were then. How much energy you had. What you could eat without consequence. The innocence. The earnestness. The sweetness. You had it once and now, it’s gone, disappeared beneath the years and the experiences and everything else.
When Taylor Swift sang ‘being this young is art,’ she wasn’t talking about your kids, about kids generally, but she may as well have been. And it’s high time we appreciate it. Because it’s something special, something irreplaceable, something that one can only do for a short time, at a very specific time.
As we’ve said here many times, their childhood isn’t something we should rush through, that we should wish away. There is something bittersweet about milestones in our kids, the same way there is something tragic about an athlete maturing and becoming a veteran player—inherent in it is something going away, something that will never return. It’s a one-way street.
So let’s appreciate it while it’s here, even when it’s loud, even when it’s messy, even when it’s screaming—as teenagers sometimes do—“I hate you!” Because they’re doing something that only they can do and they can only do it for such a short while longer. It’s art. Soak it in. Love it. Respect it.
In this world of infinite bustle and constant demands for your time and attention, our Tempus Fugit medallion is a helpful reminder to slow down and soak in the art unfolding right before your eyes. Hold the present tight, the coin reminds us, and embrace the people you love as much as humanly possible for as long as humanly possible. Because you never know when it’s going to end.
