Ella painted this self-portrait yesterday. I praised her for its beauty and simplicity. It just struck me as bearing a significant likeness to her. Brown hair, round pink face, blue eyes, pretty mouth. Just sweet – like her.

Every day, this kind of art flows out of them.

At school they cut, paint and craft. At home, they draw, colour and, on occasion, fabricate substantial structures. They are creating their masterpieces – building their dreams.

Yet, what are we to do with it all? Should we save it in binders or file folders in the basement? Should we recycle it? Or just act impressed and crumple the creations into paper balls headed for the garbage basket?

This is the dilemma of all parents. Some just toss everything to avoid clutter. Some use the fridge to display their cluttered, creative lives.

I feel this dilemma every time I am presented with one of their works of art. Well, not every time. Sometimes I am just too busy preparing dinner, cleaning up after dinner, making sure the homework is done or the piano is practiced to pay much attention. On one hand, I ask myself: “How can I toss the creative outpourings of my children so nonchalantly?” Yet the other hand is right there, ready to point out: “But what am I supposed to do with all this stuff?”

In the hands of Michael Chabon, this art dilemma is a metaphor for the abundance of moments in our lives that are similarly discarded through lack of attention. In Manhood for Amateurs, he writes:

The truth is that in every way I am squandering the treasure of my life. It’s not that I don’t take enough pictures, though I don’t, or that I don’t keep a diary, though iCal and my monthly Visa bill are the closest I come to a thoughtful prose record of events. Every day is like a kids drawing, offered to you with a strange mixture of ceremoniousness and offhand disregard, yours for the keeping. Some of the days are rich and complicated, others inscrutable, others little more than a stray gray mark on a ragged page. Some you manage to hang on to, though your reasons for doing so are often hard to fathom. But most of them you just ball up and throw away. (pp. 40-41)

There is a simple antidote for this routine “taking-for-granted-ness” that pervades my life. Just stop. Participate. Listen. Engage.

Once I realize how distracted I can be, it is easier to focus on the moment – the moments that make up the day, the weeks, the months that pass so quickly and are gone. Forever. It will never be a waste of time – my life will only be richer for it.