Cherish the Now

Cherish now!

I cherished then . . .

Snuggles and hugs freely given,

Eyes bright with laughter today;

Like apples of gold and of crimson,

I cherish their laughter at play.

Leaves turning colors so vibrant,

Crisp autumn air in these days;

Like pumpkins all shapes and all sizes,

I cherish my munchkins today.

Time passes on – this I notice

As summertime turns into fall;

Do I cherish and notice each moment

Of my youngsters, those short and those tall?

I catch in my mind sweet surprises

To hold in my heart from now on

As the seasons keep moving and changing

My love – ever and always – lives on.

                 I cherish now . . .

Our nest is now empty and quiet

But the memories? Oh how they remain

And we smile and we laugh in the empty

At all that we realize we’ve gained.

Our family is growing in numbers

And there’s plenty of love to go around

We honor and thank God our Father

for the blessings we claim from this house.

The laughter is deeper and richer

The voices are so many more

Could we go back, not a one we would give up

For our six are our pride and our joy.

The yard that was filled with laughter

The trees that regaled in their play

Is sometimes abundantly quiet

For our children have all moved away.

Yet the days when home becomes noisy

Filled with laughter from grandchildren at play

We relish the moments – and cherish

Our littles who come here to play.

The circles keeps growing larger

From the ones who now call this Grandpa’s house

And we’re grateful we took time to cherish

When our little ones were growing up in this house.

We cannot go back, but we cherish

The memories and fun times galore

And we pray we ever will treasure

Our family and life’s abundant blessings in store.

A note from Gertrude. This is a repost from eight years ago. I added to it because our family has grown!