“There is always one unexpected moment in life when a door opens up to let the future in.” ~ Graham Green

In many ways this happens to me every single day.  Some days it is a welcome breeze blowing through to clear out the cobwebs, and some days it is more like a typhoon compressed into just a single fleeting thought. A thought that then sits heavy on my heart and waits for the visions of what might be to subside.  But those times are fewer than the other times, most times.  The times that  the feeling is similar to that of fresh crisp air that nips into your lungs on a fall day. The feeling of rolling the window down as you drive on a backroad after being inside too long on a cool spring day while the sun shines in and your favorite song rises through the speakers.

The moments that drive these realizations are just that moments; yet somehow they are so packed with emotion I can feel them for days, months and even a year later.  It’s moments like E really walking, really showing that she will walk at some point on December 19, 2013 that move me even now beyond any boundaries I may have thought existed for the purest of joys.

This is when I see what’s truly possible. What the human spirit can do.  How sometimes the moments you would never let yourself imagine can happen right before your eyes.  How even though you have logged countless hours and watched the smallest moments as huge milestones, you find yourself in awe as you watch it all come together.  You peek through the door.  You see the future. Not the fearful future that is scary with the unknown, but the open hopeful future paved with possibility.  How whatever “can’ts” you have heard become “maybes” and “cans.” It is the most beautiful of recognitions and it can happen every day.

The smallest of things can bring the same awakening.  When Q yells at me from the doorway, “Mommy! Kiss and Hug!” even though we have already hugged goodbye twice. When baby M turns her head at the sound of my voice entering a room and gives me a huge smile as she wriggles to try to get to me.  Little tiny moments in each day.  If I didn’t know better I might let them pass, not giving them a second thought, but E has changed all of that. She has broadened my view, my perspective and my world. She has taught me that the seemingly smallest things can change everything and can be just the moment that opens the door to not only to let the future in but to remind me that each day can and should be ‘mynewfavoriteday.’

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