Meaning Exists In Everyday Moments

Lately I’ve been able to feel time in the palms of my hands. It slips between my fingers the way sand trickles through an hourglass. Just as I begin to admire it, it’s already changed.

I’ve been thinking more than usual about my hourglass, especially in moments when beauty startles me: a sunset abruptly snaps me out of a fog, a finger on my skin runs chills down my spine, a butterfly unexpectedly flies by.

Beautiful moments arrive often but suddenly. I sometimes fall so in love with a single one that I wonder how many more remain. Is my hourglass three-quarters full? Three-quarters empty? Would I want to know if I could?

Probably not. Not knowing keeps me alert. If any sunset, any finger on my skin, any butterfly could be the last, why would I take it for granted?

But the truth is that I do, all the time.

MondaysTuesdaysWednesdaysThursdaysFridaysSaturdaysSundays blend together until 365 of them form an entire year. Years form decades; decades form a lifetime.

The moments that structure entire days often feel mundane when they occur frequently and consecutively. But these are the moments that form an entire lifetime.

I have to remind myself of the fragility of it all each day. Every morning I wake into a world that offers its gifts to me and asks for nothing in return. Every day is an opportunity to stand in the way of life’s raw beauty.

A meaningful life isn’t constructed of major, grandiose moments, but rather an attentive awareness to everything that surrounds and interacts with us in a single day.

There’s nothing special about the sound of water running, the site of snow resting on pine trees, the sound of a friend’s laugh, or any of life’s countless beauties unless we’re aware of them.

Nothing is beautiful unless we’re paying attention.

Are you?