Life Markers In The Waiting Room

This morning I went for my annual {although it’d been three years for me} gynecological exam. {TMI…I know…} Upon entering the waiting room, I updated my paperwork, then proceeded to do what you do in a waiting room: wait. I piddled around on my phone, flipped through a magazine, then started people watching. Several pregnant ladies were sitting uncomfortably in their seats, looking as miserable as I remember feeling in those last weeks. One couple was entertaining their toddler. Another couple was staring at ultrasound photos. I remembered what it was like to be pregnant in that waiting room, as well as pregnant and entertaining toddlers. I remember thinking I’d never see the day when I would sit in that room without a child in my stomach or at my feet. In fact, I remember feeling a bit sorry for all the “older” women who sat in that room. Today, I sat there thinking that I had become one of those older women.

When I was about to wrap up my trip down memory lane, I was called to the nurse’s station for the dreaded weigh-in, urine sample {I know, I know…TMI}, and finger prick. First, however, the nurse asked me my age. Ummmm…… 36. I think? Literally, I stood there trying to remember how old I’d turned on my last birthday. But, alas, I remembered that yes, I am 36…all thanks to my dear friend, Ashley, who told me on my birthday that I now would have to check the “over 35” box on forms!

Upon seeing the doctor, who thought it necessary to remind me that I hadn’t been in for a visit in three years, I officially no longer felt like the young, vibrant mom I used to be. Dear-old-doc {who, by the way, had aged a bit in three years} said he was sending me down the hall for a cholesterol check and to schedule my first-ever mammogram {by now you should know that there’s just TMI in this post!}. The scheduling assistant welcomed me to “the club.” Really? Wasn’t it just yesterday that I was standing there scheduling my first baby’s ultrasound?? No, as a matter of fact, it was not…that was almost 13 years ago!

Life passes by so much more quickly than we realize. Sometimes days and weeks seem to drag on forever until one day we look back, and thirteen years have flown by. My friend, Jamie, recently wrote about seizing the day. Like her, I’m realizing that every day is the chance to take hold of whatever opportunity God presents us with, and live! Tomorrow may never come, so it’s wise to make the most of today. Unfortunately, I’ve spent the first 30ish years of my life waiting for and worrying about tomorrows. It’s only been recently that I’ve begun to learn what it is to live in the present, learning to savor today as if it might be my last. And when I forget, I give myself grace to remember again.

Has life recently reminded you how quickly it passes before your eyes? Did you look back with a sense of accomplishment in having seized the day, or did you look back with regret over what might have been?