Cailin ate her breakfast at the kitchen counter while Cassidy primped her hair in the bathroom mirror.
We had 10 minutes until I needed to start barking out orders and rushing everyone to the bus, so it was the perfect time to steal away to my office for a few minutes of facebook and blogging.
After a few minutes I felt convicted that these free moments are precious and few, and would be better spent with the girls instead of on the computer, so I immediately popped up the stairs to the kitchen.
As I topped the stairs and could see Cailin's stool, it was bare. She wasn't there any more, she had wandered off in my absence.
The image of the dimmed kitchen, empty now, hit me with an almost physical force. She was gone, and I had missed her.
For the moment she was just down the hall, but too soon, she will be in a dorm or a home of her own, with Cassidy soon to follow, and my kitchen will be empty every day.
I know that God chose to use this morning to speak to me, to remind me of what is truly important, and where my time is to be spent.
The days are fleeting, and as endless as some of them seem, that is an illusion. I want to make better choices, I want to be present, I don't want to miss those moments that may be no more than filling a milk glass, because no matter how trivial, they are with the ones I love.
There is nothing trivial about that.
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