Remembering This Time

Take a look at this photo.  It is Asher puttering around at the playground equipment at our local park on a beautiful weekday afternoon.  It was taken by our nanny, who is an incredibly good photographer to boot.


My on-ramp as a dad occurred 10+ years ago when I was in grad school, which afforded me an amount and flexibility of free time that I simply do not have now.  That playground equipment brings back countless hours interacting with Jada when she was about Asher's age.

That connection made me wistful about the 1-year-old version of Jada.  It also gave me pangs about not being able to spend as much time with the 1-year-old version of Asher.

I feel pretty good about my work-life balance.  While I make tough choices to sacrifice family time to press on at work, I also make tough choices to sacrifice work opportunities to invest in time with my family.  I'm pretty comfortable with the choices I've made.

But that doesn't mean that there isn't some lament that I'm no longer in my early 30's, with only a few classes to worry about, rather than in my mid 40's, with many more responsibilities on my plate, especially as it relates to the space to soak up this precious time that Asher is this exact age.  We'll make the most of what time we do have, that's for sure.