Five minutes through my eyes

I came across a very interesting writing prompt this afternoon: imagine after I die, my son will be given the gift of a five-minute glimpse of life through my eyes. Naturally, my first thought is to give him the happiest memory I have. Almost all of my happy memories include him and how could I possibly condense all of that into five minutes? In four years, this child has given me a lifetime's worth of happiness and joyful memories. What I want most for my son is to always know how completely and absolutely happy he made me. I hope that my pride in being his Mom will be enough to keep him from ever feeling inadequate or not good enough. I hope that my joy in his sense of humor will be enough to keep him from ever feeling insecure. I hope that the depth of love that I feel for him will keep him from ever feeling unloved or unwanted. I hope that he always knows that he is a person of magnificent value and he was loved absolutely.

I think my five minutes will have to be a montage of sorts. Of course, the day he was born will be included. The day he took his first steps. The day he stopped calling me Katie and finally started calling me Mommy. All the moments that we struggled through a tantrum and made it out on the other end; intact and still loving each other. I want him to see the times that I took him out to dinner or just to run errands and how special that time was. I want him to feel how happy he made me. I also want him to see the times that weren't so good or so happy. What better way to make a person feel loved unconditionally than to see the worst and know that Mommy still loved them after that? I want him to know that the role of being his Mom was not one that I took lightly but rather one that I cherished and took very seriously.

I want those five minutes to fully encapsulate all of the joy and pure, raw love that we felt for each other. I want those five minutes to be something that he can carry with him through life. Through adolescence, adulthood, marriage, fatherhood and beyond. I want that all consuming love to always be a keystone of the man that he will grow to be.