Sometimes it feels my parenting experience is made up of just two alternating moments.
One moment, I really doubt all the, “Don’t hit your sister; Yes, you have to eat all of it; Are you listening to me? But I asked YOU to do it; JUST STOP SHOUTING! – I mean, please don’t shout,” is going to end before my sanity does.
The other moment I can feel time and opportunity slipping away from me, and there is so much GOOD I haven’t shared with them, and I’m afraid I’m not savoring things enough to remember the way I want to when I’m old, and I’m not even sure they properly understand how much I love them, and why can’t we just hold onto this moment, and treasure it like – oh, I don’t know – like a cricket in jar?
Chris Slaten’s (aka: Son of Laughter) song, Cricket In A Jar, has been a great encouragement to me in both these moments. He sings so lovingly about the transience of childhood that I am prompted to slow down amidst the craziness, to look for the beauty and be thankful. And he writes so insightfully about the necessity of holding loosely to the ones we love, that I feel my panic abate, and I am able to be thankful without grasping.
I hope it encourages you as much as it has me.
CRICKET IN A JAR
Catch the moment. The moment has passed!
This is a law of loveliness: we love what never lasts.
Try and hold it; it slips right through.
Before you know the garden’s grown. There’s nothing left to do.But I need more than a memory to take me back in time
to the day of your delivery lip quivering and crying…
to catch and hold you!Catch the moment. The moment has passed!
This is a law of loveliness: we love what never lasts.
Why can’t we own it like a cricket in a jar
and let it sing with tiny wings of laughter in the yard?As the ice is fading from the glassy tangled trees,
I see your snowy footprints and I wish that they could be
fixed and frozen!Catch the moment. The moment has passed!
This is a law of loveliness: we love what never lasts.
Let it go now; it’s all I can do.
Watch them fly like cord-free kites
into the blue.
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If you love this song as much as I do, consider buying the 5-song album here:
It’s a beautiful piece of art.
He continues to write about adventure, backyard wildlife, and realizing there are no ordinary places, and you can find him at JamesDWitmer.com.
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Right there with you, brother (and thanks, Chris).
Forgive me if I sound like a broken record, but have you read AP’s old essay, titled “The Tick of the Clock”?
http://www.jslweb.com/blog/2007/08/14/andrew-peterson-appendix-m/
I don’t think so, but I will now. Thanks!
My husband said: “I love this song! I’ve been trying to write a song like this for months!”
If I write one like this in my lifetime, I’ll be content! (Well, is that ever true? But still…)
Yes, and yes.
Yes.
We got to meet Chris at Under the Radar’s “Escape to the Lake” last week, and only after the second day did I say, “wait, Chris Slaten? You wrote “Cricket in a Jar”! We heard it on Story Warren. We love that song!”