The house is quiet. I’m walking from room to room looking in each. Everything is still until I hear a little bit of giggling coming from a not-so-secretive little girl.
“Ready or not, here I come!” I shout, giving her a little warning that I’m on my way.
More giggling.
I pull open the closet doors. “There you are!”
She laughs as she runs and hugs me.
It’s her favorite game – Hide and Seek.
“You count again, mommy! Close your eyes and count again!” She pleads.
So I stand in my kitchen with my hands over my eyes….
“1….2….3….4…” and she runs off.
This morning, the house will be a different sort of quiet.
It won’t be quiet like it was when she was a newborn and spent so much of her day sleeping against my chest.
It won’t be quiet like it was when she was trying to sneak cookies, or put on my makeup, or put stickers all over the walls.
It won’t be quiet like it was when she learned how to play alone with her toys in her room.
And it won’t be quiet like when we play a game of Hide and Seek.
She’s off to kindergarten this morning, and after we get her dressed in the outfit folded neatly on top of her dresser, and take our first day of school pictures, and bravely (or not so bravely) walk into the classroom and say our goodbyes, I’ll come home and the house will be still.
“You count again, mommy! Close your eyes and count again!” I’ll remember my little girl say.
And so I’ll stand in my kitchen, and count the years that passed like seconds, wondering how they all went by so quickly.
But this time, I won’t close my eyes. Because I have learned my lesson.
“Ready or not, here I come,” Life shouts out, giving us a little warning. And we know we can’t stop it. We can’t even slow it down.
The only say we have in this game is our refusal to close our eyes.
Don’t blink, momma. Whatever you do… don’t blink.
“1….2….3….4…” and she runs off.
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