There’s so much to do. There’s so much going. We have so much to manage. We have so much coming up.

It all becomes like a blur, the big moments and the small ones, one task from the next, one day to the next. There is a beautiful passage in Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These (grab a copy at The Painted Porch), where Bill Furlong, the husband and father, catches himself, like we all do, simply going through the motions.

“Even while he’d be creaming the butter and sugar, his mind was not so much upon the here and now and on this Sunday nearing Christmas with his wife and daughters so much as on tomorrow and who owed what, and how and when he’d deliver what was ordered and what man he’d leave to which tasks, and how and where he’d collect what was owed—and before tomorrow was coming to an end, he knew his mind would already be working in much the same way, yet again, over the day that was to follow.”

Even on Christmas! Even at their birthday party we do it! Even after that health scare!

We’ve said before that the key to parenting is presence. Not presents but presence. What an incredible gift that would be to give our children—you know, to actually be there as we made cookies with them. To be there while they’re opening presents (instead of thinking about cleaning up or what you’re going to eat later or answering all those messages piling up on your phone). To actually be there as we sat in the audience of their performance. To actually be there as we sat on the couch and watched a movie. Instead of thinking of the next thing. Instead of worrying. Instead of planning.

What if we were just here, right now, with them?

P.S. We highly recommend picking up Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These, which we recently chose for our book club we do over at The Painted Porch—you can grab your own copy from the bookstore here. It’s a short and powerful read that will stay with you long after you turn the final page and remind you of the importance of being present with your kids.