Take a vacation: Visit a special moment

August is a great month for vacations, those annual escapes to places of bliss and peacefulness. This restful “away-ness” can be as short as a day or as lengthy as a week or two.

But recently I’ve found that this same level of contentment can also be captured in a moment.

One of my favorite places to visit any time of year, or any time of day, is not a beach, a national park, or a famous city.

Now that my boys are almost grown, I find myself visiting precious moments of their early childhood. I linger in the times that brought so much happiness and stand in the moments of the memories that I hold dear. I can’t help but smile as I recall the precious moments of their lives, which would probably seem ordinary to others.

For example, there’s that look in Austin’s eyes when he thought he was lost and then the look of safety when he spotted me in the grocery aisle. Other memories include the glance to me from Trey after hitting a home run, calls from both boys letting me know they had passed their exams, and sheepish little grins as they prepared for their first dates.

But for the longest time, remembering all the joy my guys had brought into my life was oddly bittersweet.

I found that many times my thoughts would be interrupted by my own question: “Did I bring enough joy into their lives?”

In our earlier years, our money was tight. Our income primarily went to one of three areas: tithing, our basis needs, and savings.

We took vacations, but we found ways to make them very inexpensive. The boys had clothes, but these clothes weren’t always new, and they weren’t always labeled with the names of famous designers. They had toys, but sometimes our way of getting them was not the immediate way.

There weren’t a lot of extras and no extremes of materialism. We planned and budgeted to the dollar.

Did it matter? To me, it didn’t. But did it matter to them? It was a question I thought about quite often.

So, one day while just hanging out, I finally gathered the nerve to ask. I needed to know.

Did they have memories to hold dear like I did? And if they did, I wondered which things—vacations, clothes, toys—held their affections or their special moments?

I asked, “What is your favorite childhood memory? Where do you go when you visit happy times?”

Without hesitation and with an infectious smile, my oldest said, “Oh, Mom, that’s easy. Austin and I have talked about it so much. Rainy days take us back to our favorite place!”

From the look in Trey’s eyes, it seemed within an instant that his memories transported him to a different time. I am sure my confused look compelled him to go on.

“Don’t you remember, Mom?” he asked. “As the rain would begin, you would stop whatever you were doing, and as you would hurry to open the front door you would rally us to come. “ ‘Trey and Austin,’ you would call, ‘Last one to the front door is a rotten egg.’ ” Running, in an attempt to beat the other, we would arrive by flopping down on our stomachs. It was through the laughing and the giggling—and wiping the water from our faces—that we would begin doing what we will forever hold dear: counting the raindrops.”

Isn’t it true that way too often we try to put a dollar sign on our happiness? Don’t we try to equate pleasure and special times with extravagance or monetary value? I was so overwhelmed with my guys’ favorite memory to visit. It didn’t cost a thing, except for my time.

I pray that if you struggle with questions like mine, you’ll find comfort in my little story. Vacations are wonderful. Monetary abundance can be a blessing. But a restful respite doesn’t always have to take you to an exotic island. It can take you to a special moment that you can create today.

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