In the Quiet Hours

As I sit on the couch slowly writing this post, I realize up front it might end up feeling vulnerable after I hit publish, but I won't take it down even if it does. Things are quiet tonight, which is rare. No TV is running. The family is asleep. There are a few dishes in the kitchen, some laundry to still get through and the floor in our Living Room and my office are a mess. I could spend a while making noise doing the dishes, finishing the laundry and picking up the living room - which is currently a mix of a cardboard skeleton used to make the rough draft of a high school French class project, the laundry bin - empty and bins and supplies for photographs my Wife has been assembling into picture frames to fill the blank spots on our walls that we've had since we moved back to California from Oregon.

I found myself standing in the middle of the floor in silence, looking around at the things that make this a home - and it's those things. I could be angry and alone in this life, but I'm not - because of this Woman I married. There will be years that come when my kids don't have school projects and we don't have to do their laundry and they don't make dishes and we don't have recent photos to put into picture frames on our walls. With no noise in the house other than snoozing cats, bedtime music playing in a bedroom and the sound of my Wife sleeping peacefully next to me - I don't want to miss that time by causing noise when we do that every other night.

Love who you love and don't miss the quiet hours. Time never gives them back.