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There are these moments, sometimes just fleeting, that slip into our days and shift everything. They come unexpectedly and settle like a spark that you feel in your chest, something that changes you for a beat, or a breath, or longer. It’s like a small blessing, just enough to tip the scales—to take you out of your day and into something beyond the weight of all that feels heavy or hard.
One day, I was struggling. Really, it was the kind of day where nothing seemed to go right. The frustrations piled up, the weight of it all pressing down—business wasn’t going well, my therapist had told me things I wasn’t ready to hear, and work felt like walking uphill with no end in sight. I remember driving, frustrated and worn, and stopping at a Starbucks I didn’t even want to go to. No drive-through. Long line inside. I remember thinking how everything was working against me that day. And I almost walked out. I almost let that one small frustration be the last straw.
But as I headed to leave, something happened. A man—just a stranger, someone in passing—held the door open for me, and another turned from the door he was already halfway through. He looked at me, paused, and he said, “You have a smile that can light up a room. I hope you never lose that.” There wasn’t any hidden meaning, no other intention in his words but kindness. He simply wanted to share something with me in that moment.
And just like that, the day turned. This small gesture, this simple moment, pulled me from everything that felt wrong and placed me into something lighter, something that felt like grace. That’s what connection does. It takes us out of the grind, the rush, the weight of what might be going wrong. It lifts us into something more meaningful, and in a small way, it changes us. It changes the day. And that change stays with us, like an anchor that keeps us steady.
These moments—they don’t need to be grand. They don’t need to be planned. Sometimes, it’s simply a shared laugh, a hug, a moment of feeling understood. For parents, it’s the look in your child’s eyes when they see you truly there, in that moment, with them. These moments don’t just happen in big events; they live in the small, everyday gestures we make when we show up for each other. They become a kind of currency, an emotional currency, that can’t be measured or bought, but it leaves us richer. And these moments—when we make space for them with our children—these are the memories that stay, that grow, that matter.
Because as parents, there’s this pressure, an invisible weight that says we have to get it right, that we have to do more, give more, somehow achieve “good parenting.” We think we’re supposed to reach some place where it all looks perfect from the outside. But real connection doesn’t need perfection; it needs presence. It’s the messy, unplanned moments—the quiet laugh, the unexpected question, the story shared at bedtime that we didn’t finish—that make the greatest difference. They stay with our children, showing them what love looks like, what empathy feels like. And it stays with us, too. These are the moments that soften us, shape us, and give us the strength to keep going.
So maybe today, take a breath. Let go of the notion that you need to be a perfect parent, or that there’s some end goal you need to reach. Instead, give yourself permission to simply be in the moment, to connect. It might be with your child over a book, a quiet walk, a shared meal. It might be with a friend, a partner, or a stranger holding a door open. Let these connections, these small moments, be the gift they are. Let them hold the space they deserve in your life, a space where connection speaks louder than anything else.
And remember: these moments might feel small, but they hold a quiet power. They build memories, layer by layer, that we and our children carry forward, something deeply human that holds our days together, that reminds us that we’re seen, loved, and enough. When we lean into that—when we let ourselves live in those moments—we’re not just changing our day. We’re creating a legacy of connection that will stay long after we’ve moved on.
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