by Shae Marcus

Sometimes, the parts of life that feel like interruptions are the very moments we’ll one day miss most.

As a business owner and a mom, I spend a lot of time on the go. My calendar is always full, my brain is usually running through 10 things at once, and there are definitely more than a few “Oh crap, I was supposed to…” moments mixed into any given week. And let’s be honest, perimenopause is not exactly helping the situation.

Recently, I was sitting in a parking lot at 9:30 at night waiting for my daughter to finish color guard practice. My first thought was exactly what you would expect: Ugh. Here I am again. I was tired. I wanted to be home in my pajamas, reading a book, not sitting under parking lot lights waiting for practice to end.

Then, for some reason, I thought, She’s in 10th grade.

And just like that, the whole moment changed.

I realized I don’t have that many of these nights left. Not that many late practices. Not that many pickups. Not that many rides home when she gets into the car and tells me about her day, who said what, what happened at practice and all the little details I probably would never hear if we weren’t trapped together in the car.

The parking lot was exactly the same. I was the one who changed.

The next day, I noticed it again with my son, who is in eighth grade. We were in the car arguing over the music, which is pretty standard for us. He wanted one thing. I wanted literally anything else. And suddenly I started laughing.

He looked at me like I had completely lost it. To be fair, there was probably a moment when he wondered if his mother was having some kind of nervous breakdown.

But really, I was thinking, I actually love this.

I love this ridiculous argument over music. I love having him sitting next to me. I love these ordinary moments that usually feel like background noise.

For years, people have told me, “It goes so fast.” When you’re in the middle of raising kids, it doesn’t always feel fast. Some days feel approximately nine years long. But then suddenly your daughter is in 10th grade, your son is in eighth, and the things that once felt like interruptions start to look a little different.

I’m still going to forget things. I’m still going to complain about late pickups. I’m still going to battle over the car playlist. But now, every once in a while, I catch myself in the middle of one of those moments and think, Oh. This one matters.

That may be the part I didn’t expect. The things I rush through, complain about or barely notice are often the things making up the life I say I’m so grateful for.

There are probably moments like that everywhere—ordinary, mildly inconvenient and easy to overlook while they are happening.

I’m not suddenly a person who loves being in parking lots at 9:30 p.m. Let’s not get carried away.

But I am starting to see them differently.

Shae Marcus, publisher of Natural Awakenings South Jersey and Philadelphia, mom of two, business owner, and someone who is learning that the life she is rushing through is often the life she’ll miss the most—powered by caffeine, humor and very full calendars.