I just read this wonderful piece by fellow Psych Central blogger Elisha Goldstein. A wise older man told him: “You know, it’s a funny thing about time, you never get it back once it passes.”
This might not seem like a surprising revelation. After all, you probably know this. Intellectually. Your mind gets it. But do you realize it? Do you feel it? Do you understand it with your body, your soul, your heart? Do you realize the power of a moment? The significance of a string of moments?
This week I watched a breathtaking Ted talk with high-speed images of pollination. It gives us a behind-the-scenes look at a magnificent process that our human eyes simply aren’t privy to. According to the filmmaker, Louie Schwartzberg, “I’ve been filming time-lapse flowers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for over 35 years. To watch them move is a dance I’m never going to get tired of. It fills me with wonder, and it opens my heart. Beauty and seduction, I believe, is nature’s tool for survival, because we will protect what we fall in love with. Their relationship is a love story that feeds the Earth. It reminds us that we are a part of nature, and we’re not separate from it.”
We forget that each moment is filled with so much. We forget that each moment is rich. Profound. Important. We forget that each moment is precious.
I hope that today you remember that and pay closer attention to what matters to you. I hope that you fill the moments with what fulfills you.
Maybe this is actually being with your partner. Being 100 percent present with them. Listening to them. Looking at their features. Touching their hand. Breathing in their cologne or perfume. Maybe this is finally giving yourself permission to try painting, even if you’re “busy.” To give yourself 30 minutes without your phone, without your to-do list.
Maybe it’s taking photos of moments throughout the day to really savor them. Maybe it’s looking within to reflect on how you’re doing, and to respond to a need.
Maybe this is simply pausing for a second longer to look in the mirror and acknowledge that you’re doing the best you can. Maybe it’s staring for a few seconds at your surroundings. At the trees. The sky. The skyscrapers. Maybe it’s slowing down your pace instead of rushing through and to every activity.
Maybe it’s using your senses to navigate the world. Really looking, listening, feeling, smelling, tasting. Taking in moments like scenes from a movie, like an art gallery, like a botanical garden, like a science museum, with mini experiments to interact with and enjoy. Like any new place you visit. With the same enthusiasm and sense of wonder.
Maybe it’s finally starting on that project, that dream, that intention you’ve been thinking about in the last few months (or years). Maybe it’s doing something playful to connect with your partner. Maybe it’s closing your eyes periodically, and reminding yourself of how lucky you are to walk this earth, even when there’s so much pain spilled along the path.
Because, again, moments are precious. Special. And finite.