Dance like no one is watching

Ready to dance the night away

I just dropped her off at her first middle school dance.  Can this really be happening?  Wasn't it just yesterday that I held her for the first time?

On days like today, I find myself reflecting.  Not just because of the milestones my kids are hitting, but because I watched a dear friend lay her dad to rest today.  Something that, by the grace of God, I have not had to do yet myself, but my heart was still aching for her.  I watched the slideshow, heard stories from his family and friends, and shed tears with the rest of the congregation in the church.  But watching that slideshow (which was the duration of 3-4 songs) sum up his full life in a series of pictures made me realize how fast it really does go.  I'm sure for Nick it felt like it all happened in the blink of any eye.  He could probably tell you the specifics of when most of those pictures were taken, and it would probably bring a smile to his face.

Life is but a series of moments.  I have had a good life so far.  Not a perfect life, not a life without trials, but overall, a very blessed life.  What I was reminded of today, was to not take those little moments for granted.  So I took pictures.  Probably too many.  Ashlynne asked why I had to take so many.  "Because I want to remember this moment" I said.  Some day,  I will look back at these pictures,  and it will seem like "just yesterday that she was going to her first middle school dance".  For now,  I have the picture in my mind,  but some day,  hopefully my head and heart will be so full of good memories that I might need the pictures to remind me of some of these times.  Or I might just want to look at them to reminisce, and to smile.  But I will never regret snapping those few extra pictures, and capturing that beautiful smile, that one brief moment in time.

In about an hour, I will be picking her up from that first middle school dance, and hopefully I will have a car full of giggly 6th grade girls, that are tired, danced out, and full of middle school love stories.  Maybe I will snap a few pictures of that too :).  Life is good.

"Our lives, are better left to chance.  I could have missed the pain, but I'd have had to miss, the dance." - "The Dance" by Garth Brooks