Lost and Found

I might be more sentimental than usual these days, if that's even possible. Some years ago, I came across a quote that sent shivers up my spine and brought tears to my eyes. It cut through me like glass. It didn't exactly change anything but it touched my heart in such a way, that I didn't feel the same after I read it.

I planned to cut it out and save it. But I didn't. Time got away from me and I slowly but surely forgot about it.

Then, I heard it somewhere again.

"I must write that down!" I said to myself. But again, for whatever reason, I didn't.

Not too long ago, pieces of the words came back into my mind and I wanted that quote. I googled every phrase I could think of, the problem being that I was unsure of any exact words, only sure of the overall picture painted in my head. I came up empty handed.

And then, like a heads up penny, I turned a corner on the internet and found it right in front of my eyes. It's fairly well known I suspect, but I was still thrilled to find it.

And now that I've got it, I am writing it here so it will never be lost again.



"I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less."

-Anna Quindlen