Life Lesson #8 ~ LIFE'S LITTLE MOMENTS

What comes to your mind when you think of an anniversary, possibly a birthday, graduation, cancer recovery, maybe a personal triumph, simply an accomplishment of any kind or the loss of a loved one? Life, in itself, is made up of small, beautiful, painstaking and mostly complicated moments. These moments are set in time, more than dreams and always wide open to interpretation. Our moments of celebration in life can be remembered as particularly breathtaking, brilliant, beautiful and pure or positively slanted in our perceptions, altered and crashed in the wreckage of our best laid plans. 

Life Lesson # 8: Life can be amazing, full of little moments worth celebrating!

That is, if we can keep from being caught up in our opinions, full of good intentions, so busy making plans for everyone else and ourselves, maps included, we forget to live in the little moments life offers us along the way. While we’re busy out planning, life is continuing, moving with meaningful points of intersection, and connecting each of us to memories, good or bad. All these moments, understated or grand events with unforgettable finales, stay with us, becoming flash points, periods in time in which we are moved in some degree or another. Whether our celebrations are full of humor, leaving us with laughter, or made up of tears, each moment, every memory we make is defining in the make-up of who we are and can ultimately become. We have all had those drop everything, let’s go, moments, book of life kind of entries. A rush of excitement, taking a breathe right before we step out, this is it… our moment has arrived and we can’t turn back kind of gravity lifting, lighting up the sky or crashing to earth in flames circumstance or occasion. 

This last year has been full of little wonders as Rob Thomas sings about, good, bad and many in-between but all leaving an impact not only on my life but those of my whole family. All our moments, touch us for a little while and yet stay with us forever, changing us one way or another. Once the moment is gone, a birthday past, a celebration only a memory, those things we never wanted so much as in those small moments become fleeting. Our hearts beat faster, our breath seems caught up inside of us and time stands still. Yet, when we remember certain moments from our past, we become afraid to be alone in those defining events of yesterday. When I look back at all those little moments in my life, there’s not a moment, not a minute I would change in exchange for another. Each one, amazing or trying, has been significant along the way, chiseling, shaping and molding life in the direction it has gone. Without these little moments, I’d be nothing but empty space. I don’t know about you but I am absolutely fine with venturing to the crossroads from time to time. Life is full of boiling points, breakthroughs, living on the brink, climax of events, coming of age, defining moments, more than enough edge, flash points, and landmark compromises. In our lifetimes we experience make-or-break decisions, milestones, and many points of no return, lots of red-letter days, moment of truth, turning point and U-turn defining moments wrapped up in memories we either celebrate or turn away from. Bottom line, I’d rather live with the outcome of life, rather than big, wide, empty, missing spaces in my memories!

 So for me, the truth lives here, we live by our memories; thoughts scatter to such things as maybe next time, words unsung, shadows of who we used to be, hoped we’d become and let go of. We get beat down by lost possibilities many times we can’t see, sharing the sweet company of family, friends, those we miss once they are gone and the light fighting it’s way into the darkness to overcome distant memories and moments we feel have disappeared. We hear the old whispers on our lips; see little glimpses of heaven in these brief moments of time imagining what was, holding onto those lasting, enduring, radiant moments for as long as we can. We are defined in these moments, and in retrospect we will continue to be for as long as we cling to and cherish or hold on bitterly to those memories as outside our control. What I know is this, all my life I have tried to make everyone else happy, been hurt, hid my feelings and gone along with the plans. But this year life changed in a big way, I stopped holding my head under water! I found I could let go of moments, seize others and take life fully by the horns without fear of the outcome. Not every moment has been perfect, nope in reality many of those small moments along the way have been pretty difficult, but oh so many more have been amazing, filled with some pretty awesome adventures. I can’t sort out all the ups and downs right now but I can shine a light on the good times, learn from the doubts cast and live life out loud in these very moments I have here and now. 

Life’s small, little moments, these memories we make become who we are, show us where we have been and add up to some pretty big moments down the road if we can just learn to slow down and actually enjoy ourselves!

~Christina