When moving last year, I found this poem that I wrote exactly twenty years ago in February 2000. I was expecting our first child at the time. We chose not to find out the gender opting for the big announcement at the birth. It’s a girl! would be exclaimed when she arrived a few months later. She will turn 20 this year in June and it really feels like the days are flying by.

What I remember specifically about this poem is that it wasn’t written to my unborn child, even though it seems so. I was very clear about that at the time, but I couldn’t explain it. Looking back, I can see that it was primarily written to myself and somehow encapsulated my hopes and dreams and fears as we were starting our family and I would soon become a mother.

What a life full of moments and emotions and what a gift to wake up each day and LIVE.

THE DAYS FLY BY

We are all born to a world of change
Though we may never know why
We grow and learn, despair, rejoice
Wonder and laugh and cry
And the days fly by.
Some look back with little more
Than regret and a wistful sigh
Or worry away the future
Or do their best to deny
That the days fly by
Each moment in time is a
Gift that comes
And goes in the blink of an eye
We question as always
The meaning of life
And “to live” is the only reply.
So I celebrate you in the here and now
May you live as well as life will allow
And may your spirits be ever high
So they too will fly
As the days fly by.

–S. R. O’Connor, 2000