The Writing Mamas Daily Blog

Each day on the Writing Mamas Daily Blog, a different member will write about mothering.

If you're a mom then you've said these words, you've made these observations and you've lived these situations - 24/7.

And for that, you are a goddess.

Monday, April 28, 2008

 

Once

My sister recommended the movie “Once.”

It took my husband and me about three months to see it, meanwhile paying Netflix for the privilege of having it sit atop our television. When we finally took the time to see it, I was struck by the movie’s simplicity.

It’s about an aspiring musician with a broken heart trying to start a music career, and a Czech immigrant making her way in Ireland. What touched me were how these two people, who had so little monetarily, were truly living their lives and pursuing their dreams in a simple, yet profound way.

It made me think about how much I have, and how I should try to live life fully in the now, instead of waiting for more. I often think, mostly unconsciously,

ONCE
My kids grow up;
We win the lottery;
I have a successful book published;
I appear on Oprah;
We live abroad for a year --

THEN,
I’ll be happy.

I wait for these things today.

Not so long ago, I wanted to find love, get married, have children, and buy a house. I have all of that now, yet, the credits never rolled along with a moving soundtrack in the background when I got what I thought I wanted most.

I always find new things to covet.

I think it’s part of the human experience to yearn for more. As I start to feel the hunger pains for a future different than my present, I pause.

I try to notice one thing that I’m enjoying now. Today, it was my boys jumping and splashing in the little blow-up pool in our backyard. Yesterday, it was my youngest son “stealing” strawberries off the counter faster than I could cut them up.

I continue to have an insatiable craving for something new, different, more, than what I already have.

Perhaps one day I will find happiness and contentment in the present; aware that everything I have is already a gift.

By Kristy Lund

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Comments:
Very insightful. We always wait for this, that and the other to be in place and then we'll truly be happy, forgetting that maybe whats happening right now is "happiness" - just not how we imagined it! I am so guilty of this.
Loved "Once" as well!
 
Wow, Kristy! I loved this! Not only do I feel the same way, I really liked the connection you made to the movie "Once" (My husband and I enjoyed that film recently, too.) I could picture you at home with your children in the little pool, and eating strawberries in the kitchen. Good writing!!
 
A lovely essay. It reminds me of something a speaker at a conference once said: "The key to happiness is wanting what you have, not having what you want."

Lorrie
 
Great blog, Kristy. I too constantly struggle, often unsuccessfully, to just stay in the now and appreciate all I have. "Once" will be my next Netflix order--sounds like a movie I need to see!
 
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