There is a point in time when you stop what you are doing and decide at that very moment if that is the most important thing you need to get done. I found myself at that exact moment tonight.
My family had just finished dinner and everyone was in the living room, I was at the kitchen sink getting ready to get the dishes done. I could hear the kids laughing, a laugh that was coming from the depths of their bellies, and I couldn’t help but chuckle myself. They were having a grand time playing with the baby, I could tell because in between the rolling laughter they were calling his name.
The sink was full of water and the dishes were ready to be washed. I held a plate in my hand and just stopped and stared at it, the most important thing I could be doing at this very minute was washing this plate? Was there even a reason I should be standing right here at the sink and not in with my children? My inner being was telling myself “I need to get these done, I can’t just leave them here.” A sink full of dirty dishes is just not a pleasant sight, but the thought of what was going on in the other room was so much more appealing.
I can recall so many times when my mother would say, “The dishes will wait, my kids won’t.” Those words were all I could hear, echoing through my mind as I stood there with that darn plate in my hand. I had a choice of watching my children laugh, play and just enjoy each other. To etch another memory in my mind of my children at that very second in time, at that very age and doing that very thing that was bringing them so much joy.
I did not get the dishes done, but I did get a lot of laughing and so many more memories done instead. I chose to let the dishes wait, because they will wait, I can get them done whenever I want, but my children will not wait and neither will the moments that I may have missed if I had stayed at the kitchen sink spending time with my dishes.
