Enjoying the moment

Ayla here, and I’m about to get personal. With summer seemingly rushing by – it’s July already, how!?! – those little memorable moments seem harder to find. Or perhaps they’re simply more difficult to polaroid. And by polaroid, yes, I just made up a verb that means to take the minute “to develop the film” so to speak, so that a moment becomes a memory.

The other day, I was feeling overwhelmed and overbusy and when our son asked if I’d play “water balloon fight” with him, and I’m working on saying yes when I’m invited to play, right!?! So we played water balloon fight with some fancy reusable silicone water balloons (SO.MUCH.FUN) and we laughed, and shrieked and it made all the busy-ness fall to the background. 

By allowing myself some moments of joy, I’m building my relationship with my son, I’m flexing my play muscle and my lungs as I squealed with the shock of a balloon full of deliciously cold water exploding on my back. 

I wondered, why don’t I do this more often? Say yes to a moment of joy, say yes to pause and play for a bit. My German farmer roots pride themselves on hard work and doing things right the first time. But what I’ve realized is that stopping for a few moments of play doesn’t mean I’m not working hard, but rather I return to the work more joyfully.

While enjoying a session mead later that evening, I reflected on how life can be trying, and hard, and will challenge you always, but everything about this beverage invited me to pause, to savor the seconds of stopping to polaroid that water balloon fight moment.