The Parent Immortal

Which Do We Actually Need More, an Eternity to Love or More Presence in the Moment?

As a teenager, the vampire myth appealed to me like no other. I romanticized the idea of living forever and of maintaining a hold on the youthful invincibility that even then I feared ending. I felt like I was born with a hyper-awareness that time was running out, and it hunted me daily.

As a parent I secretly wish for another type of immortality as I watch my children age, my own body rapidly becoming something other than I am used to, and time moving altogether too quickly. Now the desire is to achieve the impossible of suspending time for a while so I can taste the beauty in my days for as long as possible.

I am grateful that my four children have a decade between them, as the experience of raising a teenager reassures me that the loss of the toddler will be replaced by something far different but equally as wonderful. Yes, teens are wonderful at times.

But even while I muse on the changing nature of my little secret obsession with living forever, I’m aware that eternity isn’t what I’m looking for, rather an extension of ‘right now’. For that matter, all the right nows. It’s not the future I crave, or to celebrate my hundredth birthday. It is to slow down the life I have today so I can squeeze every last drop out of it.

I think this is a sentiment we can all relate to. The busyness and rush of everyday life, especially when children are involved, is a harsh reminder that time is flying by and the eat, work, sleep repeat cycle is often deeply unsatisfying.

So can we be a new kind of immortal?

One who lets go of the irrelevant squabbles and dramas of daily life because history has taught them that they truly don’t matter. One who has an acute awareness that life is fleeting so they stop and enjoy it as much as possible. One that knows the pleasure of shared touch, simply sitting and breathing with another person, listening to all they want to express through their bodies as much as their voices. One that knows the limitless distractions we can provide for ourselves and does their best to avoid them, staying resolutely on the path to their truest purpose.

I think one element of attraction to being an immortal is the idea of knowledge. It is possible, however, that it is not the acquiring of more information, but the distilling down to its essence the knowledge we already possess.

The youngest among us seem to arrive fully aware that all that matters is the world immediately in front of them, there to be experienced through every one of their senses.

Could you challenge yourself to live some of your life that way?

Can you start right now?