Stop and Smell the Roses

Remember when you were a child and cartoons only came on saturday morning, you had to sit and wait by the radio to either record your favorite song on a cassette tape or to just hear it (and there was always a DJ that snuck in either beginning or end of your recording), you waited patiently for the mail man to bring a hand written letter (maybe one that contained a homemade friendship bracelet), you talked on the phone that was connected to the wall and you could only walk 5 ft away (if you were lucky) and if anyone called it was busy until you hung up (which was more than likely HOURS - hours of giggling with your best friend - not bff..you didn't text back then or even know what a cell phone was). These are things our children won't know / won't experience. They won't know the feeling of anticipation for that letter from the kid you met at camp, how the paper feels in your hand, how it gets crinkly from all the ink used to describe your friends day/family/life. I remember writing several pages to friends I met when I was younger. The effort put into choosing the PERFECT colors for their friendship bracelet (they weren't mass produced) and after mailing, waiting again in anticipation for their response. Running to the mailbox to see if this was my lucky day. My daughter won't experience the waiting for that day the boy of her temporary dreams calls her on the house phone and just talk to her or ask her out (he will probably text her cell some silly cryptic message). She won't know what it is like to be out of touch. To ride her bike to her friends house and have her parents looking for her to come home for dinner. She will probably text us some crazy text like brt after we text din - nw. She won't wake early on saturday morning to eat cereal and wait for her favorite cartoons, she will probably watch them from her ipad whenever the mood strikes her. She like all of us have everything at her fingertips. She will want for nothing. We really have no treats anymore. We have everything available to us at the push of a button or voice command. Are we becoming numb to the little things. Do we have so much that we can't appreciate even the tiniest of things. Do we ever stop and smell the roses? I hope that my daughter will appreciate those little surprises, will experience those anticipations, will develop those deep friendships that only talking and letter writing can. I hope that she never takes things for granted. That she sees every day as a gift. And that we are there to share it with her.