This Too Shall Pass.
This article is part of Finding the Words, a newsletter that delivers practical insights on the day’s issues.
Every now and then, I come across a relic — some flash of a time gone by that brings me right back to who I was in that earlier moment. Just like that, and I'm the clumsy middle school kid again. Or the young and struggling professional, the new mom, the budding business owner…
Usually, the feeling emerges when I rediscover a photo on my iPhone. Memories from this day, in some long-ago year. Sometimes it's not a photo at all, but a smell, or a place, or the sound of a voice.
I'm sure you've had these moments too, when the present pauses just long enough to feel like you're right back there, again.
If you've ever called my cellphone, you likely know one of relics I speak of. It's a time capsule of me in early motherhood, when I was balancing both growing a small business and growing small children. Kate in preschool, and Sophia in second grade, agreed to record the message for my voicemail — and the rest, I suppose, is history.
That voicemail has lived on my phone for nearly a decade now. I'm the one who rarely hears it, though every so often I think about calling myself just to listen. I've come to learn that it leaves my callers with a small, universal moment of joy — an unexpected encounter with two little voices on the CEO's voicemail, and an immediate reminder that we're all a little more human than our work personas let on.
It's also my truest personal reminder that life will always move faster than we want it to.
So many times throughout life, I have yearned for the future. 'If I could just get there sooner' or 'Once I pass that milestone, things will surely get easier'.
But slowly, finally, I've come to recognize what my mom warned me about all along:
This, too, shall pass.
We usually say those words to steady ourselves on the hard days.
But the truly hard part is that the sweet things pass too.
The voicemail will someday be lost.
The kids will grow up.
The friends will change.
The surroundings will look different.
Change happens, often so incrementally we hardly notice — until suddenly we do. The moments we were holding onto have passed, while life keeps moving forward, faster than we wished it would.
It feels like we're at one of those turns in life right now, as we near the end of another summer. The start of a new school year, a new season, a new month, a new adventure. I can feel my default tendency to rush toward the new start, wondering what's around the corner in front of me, even as new memories are forming right here in the present moment.
We can't slow down time, though I've learned there are some wonderful ways to stretch it, and of course, to choose to stay present in it. So, next time life feels like it’s rushing too fast, remember that we can go back, if just momentarily, via a voicemail, an old video, or the sound of a sweet laugh to cherish where we've been.
Bottom line: It's OK to feel pulled toward what's coming next. But today, if just for a moment, I hope you can go back to wherever you've been, and cherish how far you've come.
This post is part of the Finding The Words column, a series published every Wednesday that delivers a dose of communication insights direct to your inbox. If you like what you read, we hope you’ll subscribe to ensure you receive this each week.
