treasure

The thought of treasure reminds me of a pirate who finds that chest full of gold coins. He spends all of his energy and life looking for that treasure because when he finds it he is set for the rest of his life. The emotion he experiences when he finds that massive treasure must be amazing. But gold coins vanish.

I have a list of memories that I cherish. Some of those cherishable memories are so high that I call them treasures. But the great thing about these treasures is that they don't vanish.

As I grow older I find that the treasure list is growing exponentially. I'm the kind of person who doesn't seek out a lot of friendships. I'd rather spend my time growing as close as I can to the few friendships that I've already established. Because it's here where I find my treasures: in unexpected wonderful moments with people I am passionately in love with.

At the top of the treasure list is moments with my wife and my son. Tonight we got home late from a mother's day thing at my in-laws and put Mason down to bed immediately, as it was an hour past his bed time. But he wasn't tired.

We were tired. It's an hour past our bedtime, on a Sunday night. We both have to get up early to go to work tomorrow. "Mason, please go to sleep." Mason wasn't tired. So we let him cry.

An hour later we finally have some sympathy. We're good at the tough love thing, but sometimes the kid just needs some sympathy. This was one of those times.

So I go into his room, crawl into his bed, and am just present with him. He talks, I listen. Story of my life, but this is different. He strokes my hair, snuggles my forehead, and breathes right in my face while he blabs on and on. Finally he starts to get tired, lessens the chatter and starts to close his eyes. I've learned by now that it's better to leave the room while he's awake so that he knows I'm leaving, rather than have him wake up with me gone and freak out. So I whisper to him, "Daddy's going bye bye now. I'm going to sleep in Daddy's bed."

Mase opens his eyes a bit, strokes my hair one last time. "Okay Daddy. I love you so much."

And there it is. Instant treasure. The moment you experience it you know that it will take a long long time to forget....having your own flesh and blood 2 year old son say those words to you.

I love this part of life.