Does Absence Enhance Presence?

Husband and I went to the Berkshires yesterday. We spent many hours in the car talking and listening to TED talks and NPR. When we returned to the city, we had dinner at a neighborhood restaurant. By the time we got home, our girls were fast asleep. And I missed them. A lot.

It was a good kind of missing, an ache almost. And when I saw them this morning, there was a little extra magic. They skipped around between bites of cantaloupe and I went in and out of being here, back and forth between my phone, thinking ahead to my day, and focusing on them. It's a challenge to be present, isn't it?

They played a game in the garden and I went out there with them. They tossed a giant red ball and laughed a lot and it was nothing but good. It struck me that my time away yesterday made this morning even brighter.

Do you think absence enhances presence? When you are away from your kids, do you find yourself missing them?