There is something special about those evening minutes floating slowly – thoughtful, lazy… A special time of reflection and deep immersion in life. The search for meaning, the purpose of existence, most often takes place just at the twilight of the day. Children subconsciously sense this evening magic… or maybe they just want to extend their day, their activity, as much as possible. Without looking at their motivation, I decided to take advantage of this pre-sleep tendency.
We used to gather together in our daughter’s room – me and the kids – to talk a while longer before bedtime, pray together, read together…
…and it usually ended in general fussiness, jokes, laughter, sometimes an argument unfortunately – and after all, that’s not what I meant! I couldn’t see any magic in it.
So, I came up with the idea that in the evenings I had to search with each of them individually for those precious scraps of life.
And it happened. Every evening, as if by magic, the children’s room turned into a safe haven, interspersed with thoughtfulness, attentiveness, silence, in which the slightest twitch of the soul could be heard. It was a time to ask the most important questions, a time to open hearts…
Each evening I prodigiously gave my minutes to each individual child. The first half hour in my oldest son’s room, the next in my daughter’s, and the last 30 minutes with my youngest son. Sometimes it was two hours, two and a half, time for them.
I didn’t always feel like it, after all, it was my precious evening personal time that I needed to reset before the coming morning of the next day.
…But some inner voice admonished me relentlessly: “It doesn’t take long, it’s only a few years.” …and he was right …it passed very quickly…
And today … we still like to spin our evening stories whenever the opportunity arises.
