With so many different hats to wear each day as parents, it can often feel like an achievement just to make it to the end of the day in one piece! Unfortunately, our whirlwind of activity as parents can sometimes be leaving our children in our wake! How many times have we said or thought, “I’ll help you in a minute,” “I’ll play with you in a minute,” “I’ll read you a story in a minute” never to reach that moment? While it is certainly quite acceptable to expect your child to wait for a moment or two before you can tend to him, just make sure you follow through! As the sayings go: Life is Short; Time Flies; They’ll be grown before you know it!
With this sentiment in mind, a terminally ill teenager with cancer in New York Hospital wrote a poem, which was shared by her doctor:
SLOW DANCE
Have you ever watched kids on a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
You better slow down. Don’t dance so fast.
Time is short. The music won’t last.
Do you run through each day on the fly?
When you ask, “How are You?” Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head?
You’d better slow down. Don’t dance so fast.
Time is short. The music won’t last.
Ever told your child, we’ll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste, not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch, let a good friendship die ‘cause you never had the time to call and say, “Hi.’
You’d better slow down. Don’t dance so fast.
Time is short. The music won’t last.
When you run so fast to get somewhere you miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift . . . thrown away.
Life is not a race. Do take it slower.
Hear the music before the song is over.
This young girl had 6 months to live, and as her dying wish, she wanted to send a letter telling everyone to live their life to the fullest, since she never will. She’ll never make it to prom, graduate from high school, or get married and have a family of her own.