Do It Now

This evening, as I sat with Baby Girl on my lap, was when it hit me. Her head was leaning back against my chest as I held the nebulizer mask over her face. The hum of the nebulizer was drowned out only by the children’s programming blaring on the television, so as to distract her from the fact that medicine was being blown into her lungs. And in the midst of all the noise, I was mesmerized. I was completely taken by the little hand resting in mine. Her hand, in all its dimpled perfectness, in all its inexplicable softness, laid in mine as the minutes ticked by and the loud machine droned on.

And something inside me said, “You need to take a picture of this. You need to remember this.”

And so I had a little conversation with myself:

“Of course I will remember this! How could I not?”

“Not like this, you won’t”

“Yes, I will. How could anyone forget the delight of a chubby baby’s hand wrapped in silky softness?”

“Look – look over there at him. Remember his baby hands?”

“Well, I kind of do, but it’s hard to picture. He’s grown so fast, you know.”

“Exactly. Take the picture. Do it now.”

And so I did. I took the picture.





















And it got me thinking. How many things are we waiting to do? How many things should we be doing that we’re putting off because we think we’ll have time or we think we’ll remember to later on when it’s more convenient?

So I say…do it now. Make the phone call. Write the letter. Give the hug. Make the connection. Whatever you’ve been putting off - that you think will be there when you finally have time for it – do it now. Because opportunities don’t last forever. And sometimes they only come around once.

And little hands don’t stay that way for very long.