{"id":447,"date":"2016-05-22T20:55:24","date_gmt":"2016-05-23T01:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/?p=447"},"modified":"2019-06-07T15:52:34","modified_gmt":"2019-06-07T15:52:34","slug":"the-cruel-and-beautiful-tricks-of-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/the-cruel-and-beautiful-tricks-of-time\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cruel and Beautiful Tricks of Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

I like to think I became a grandparent at a fairly young age (don\u2019t we all?).\u00a0 Let’s don’t dwell on whether that is a delusion.\u00a0 Just believe me when I say that life can sometimes look very similar to the way it rolled before the age of the spirit begins to diverge widely from the age of the body, and before the family grew by an additional generation.\u00a0 Some challenges with my grandchildren are the same ones I had with my own young daughter, raising her as a single mom beginning almost three decades ago.<\/p>\n

Chief among those is the struggle to give the children more of my time.\u00a0 Like so many grandparents today, I remain a working professional with a more-than-full-time job and a family I adore that is spread over many miles.\u00a0 Add to those factors a desire to give time back to the community and reasonable attempts at a social life and downtime, and the sum total spins the days forward at a turbo-charged pace.\u00a0 And the only thing moving faster than the merciless calendar is the rate at which the children mature and change, and the heart longs not to miss it.<\/p>\n

So it was that I was deep into some rudimentary problem at the office a few days ago when I noticed my cell phone vibrating on silent with a call from my daughter.\u00a0 This was not routine; she has much-appreciated respect for the moderate insanity of my usual workday and almost never calls me before 6 p.m.\u00a0 It was a few hours before quitting time, but I couldn\u2019t stifle a prick of anxiety, so I picked up her voice message at my first opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cMom,\u201c says my daughter\u2019s voice, chirping out on the speaker, \u201csorry to bother you at work, but Sis wanted me to call you.\u00a0 She just said she wanted to talk to you, so I thought I\u2019d try and see if you could pick up.\u00a0 We\u2019ll catch you later.\u00a0 Bye!\u201d<\/p>\n

Sis wanted to call me?\u00a0 I\u2019m charmed to distraction, wondering what was on her three-year-old mind.\u00a0 I must call back ASAP to ascertain. But various tasks loom large before I can finish the day, so rush, rush through those, rush home through annoying traffic, rush the dog out for her business and fill her food bowl. Where did the day evaporate to? The sun is low on the horizon. Breathe at least once\u2014now, time to call Sis back.\"Calendar<\/p>\n

Well, hang it, it\u2019s already her bedtime.\u00a0 Time got away from me again, but I\u2019ll try anyway.\u00a0 And let\u2019s tap the wonders of technology and use the videophone, and maybe I\u2019ll get a glimpse of that little face.\u00a0 My daughter, who knows me well, picks up even though they are cuddled in Sis\u2019 bed, finishing a story with the lights down.\u00a0 \u201cYou can talk to Evie for just a minute,\u201d says my daughter softly to her little one, turning the camera to center it on the child, \u201cthen it\u2019s bedtime.\u201d<\/p>\n

I can see Sis\u2019 expression in the dim late light, and she is tired.\u00a0 Her mother\u2019s voice is tired, and I am beyond tired myself.\u00a0 Hey, sweetheart, I say softly, I heard you wanted to call me, so I wanted to be sure to call you back.\u00a0 What\u2019s on your mind?<\/p>\n

\u201cEvie,\u201d she begins, then falters, facing the camera\u2019s eye, squirming and digging deeper into her covers.\u00a0 Yes, precious? I encourage.\u00a0 \u201cEvie,\u201d she repeats, with uncharacteristic brevity, snaring a lock of hair on a tiny finger and tugging it while she contemplates my face on the phone screen.\u00a0 Yes, sweetheart, I inquire again, debating to myself whether this is an expert bedtime-avoidance stall or something our little chatterbox really needs to share.\u00a0 (Sis is an Olympic-level competitor in the Bedtime Stall.) Either way, Time My Enemy is ticking away, and I want to be out of my work clothes, off my feet, and tucking into some form of late dinner.\u00a0 My heart wants to complete this little circle, but my head wants to get on with it.\u00a0 My toes are not tapping with impatience, but they are thinking about it. Why does it always, always have to feel like time is so short?<\/p>\n

\u201cSis, we have to hang up so you can go to sleep,\u201d prompts my daughter with admirable patience (while I hope my lack thereof is not showing). \u201cTell Evie what you need to tell her.\u201d<\/p>\n

The child heaves a tired sigh and turns toward the phone screen for one last effort.\u00a0 \u201cEvie,\u201d she says slowly and carefully, \u201cI love you.\u201d<\/p>\n

And for just a moment, time stops.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I like to think I became a grandparent at a fairly young age (don\u2019t we all?).\u00a0 Let’s don’t dwell on whether that is a delusion.\u00a0 Just believe me when I say that life can sometimes look very similar to the way it rolled before the age of the spirit begins to diverge widely from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grandkids","category-mid-life-adventures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}