Finite And Fleeting Moments

18th April 2016

(Last Days Of Shanghai, 1949, Life Archives.)

I love this useful bit of mental arithmetic, especially during the school holidays!

“In the course of each bedtimes bedlam, try to see into the future. The next time the clamour crescendos, but before the din dims, imagine your biological parenthood clock wound forward to the time they have grown and left home. Picture their formerly tousled bedrooms as neat, clean and empty. See the tidy backseat of the car, vacuumed and without crumbs or Cheerios. Playroom shelves neatly stacked with dusty toys. Laundry under control. Then wind the imaginary clock back from the future to now, and see those moments of mayhem for what they are, finite and fleeting moments. Never to be reproduced. Precious.”

Dr. Harley Rotbart