Thinking About Time

After saving up seven weeks of his allowance to buy a Lego Coast Guard Helicopter and Rescue Raft kit, my son has gotten very interested in saving up for Lego kits.  Right now he has his eye on a $150 jobbie, and he's counting down, day by day, how long it will take him to save up for it:  he has 209 days to go.  I have a feeling he may eventually scale back and go for something more quickly attainable.  We'll see.

Of course it's fascinating to me to see how much math he's learning through this interest, how much he's learning about how we measure time in hours and days and weeks and months.  He's learning how to comparison-shop, going online to check out what other Lego enthusiasts have to say about different models.  

But I do find myself feeling a little sad as I see him start projecting forward in time like this.  I can see him wishing the days would pass quickly to get him to his future goal, and I think of how much of my life I've spent thinking the good part was the part just ahead of me.  I just had to get through high school, or college, or grad school; I just had to get through this last hour of school before the end of the day; I just had to get through this last week of school to get to summer vacation, and so on.  

I'm aware now that this is a path to suffering and mindlessness, but I still do a fair amount of thinking about what's next instead of being attentive to what's happening right now.

Today, I'm renewing my own vow to live more in the present, even if I can't stop my son from hurtling forward into his future.