Goodnight Sun, Stars & Moon

As we enter this season of gratitude and recall and recount all of our blessings and the ways we can be thankful, there are so many ways to be present and open to what is already and wondrously there. Here, the bedtime ritual of young childhood easily springs to mind.

In all that we've been cautioned to "enjoy while we can" and "it goes by so fast" regarding those precious, yet fleeting moments of childhood, these are those essential moments that truly bring deep gratitude and pure joy; the essence of childhood being distilled.

Because no matter how tired we are at the end of the day or what kind of havoc has been unleashed on any given day, the childhood bedtime ritual is unfailingly sacred and one not to be missed. For how long will there be footed pajamas and sheer joy from which a bath time beard is created by thick and citrusy bubbles. How long we will hear, "just one more book" or "tell me a special story, Mommy" and then cozying up with the fluffiest blankets in a pillow haven of makeshift forts and castles.

Even as my four-year-old daughter starts to use words like "curious" and "frustrated" and admonishes Mommy to " Don't talk when I am talking" and to Daddy: "Don't talk with your mouth full," the most recent of bedtime requests was one to be sweetly stored away in the memory bank under "Unfettered Happy Moments." The request was simple: "Hold me like a baby and sing "Rock-a-Bye Baby," and "Su La Li." Although my daughter's legs are growing quite long and she weighs far more than an infant, I was more than happy to oblige.

Because in these fleeting and tender moments (void of the whining, temper tantrums and high-pitched shrieking), we never really know if this will be the last of such a sweet request. When it all comes down to it, we discover that childhood is just like life: unavoidably ephemeral. Thus, it becomes up to us to seize happiness in the moments. In this truism, we equally find that the pursuit of happiness is not really a pursuit at all. The happiness just appears in a quiet moment in a form often familiar and in remarkable stillness.

So, instead of bracing ourselves from the multiple nightly wakings calling for attention and sharing of the bed yet again, it makes sense to yield and just let my children's childhood yearnings be as they are and revel in these short lived moments.