The Shortest Day.

Time is free, but it's priceless.
You can't own it, but you can use it.
You can't keep it, but you can spend it.
Once you have lost it, you can never get it back.
~Harvey MacKay

I was getting emotional yesterday watching all the families in their movements at mass and throughout the rainy day yesterday. This is what stays with me:

The 30 something man with his hand around his fragile grandmothers waist. The care and the love expressed in his touch, the care I felt him taking for her was not possible to measure.

The Mommy taking communion with her little one holding her leg tightly and the littler one snuggled in her arms.

The Grandmother holding her Grandson in her arms for most of the hour, keeping him close and safe as his mother watched approvingly.

The volunteer Mom coordinating the Christmas eve mass for the children saying to Wyatt, "would you like to be a Shepherd or an Angel?"

The Priest showing Wyatt how to "dance" the bowl of incense down the main aisle. Step, step, step, step, bowlie, bowlie, bowlie, bowlie.

As told to me by Tony after the mass:
Tony took Wyatt to the restroom before communion and a woman asked him to help with her husband. This man has Parkinson's and Tony helped him out of the restroom and to his car. The woman shared with him that it was, in fact, their 51st wedding anniversary and her husband had insisted that they attend mass this morning.

Watching Tomasa [Tony's Mother] in her sweet happiness as she celebrated her birthday surrounded by her children and grandchildren.

And most of all, feeling God's love and presence in all these family moments and movements.

Some days, I am so focused on the task at hand or just getting through the current moment to hurry on with the next one. Yesterday I was able to not only witness but to take time to reflect on the beauty of the simple moments of family unity. I think of it as a gift of clarity and am grateful for moments like that that keep me with the correct perspective, and remind me that true love is measured not in what is said, but what is done.