Little Moments Matter

I have a dear friend who is a very attentive listener. She is always interested in what her friends have to say. If ever I try to ask about her life, she answers quickly and then asks another question about me.

She wants details.

All five senses. Where did I go? What did I do? How did I feel? Sometimes, she even closes her eyes while I describe an event or a scene and she’ll really try and put herself in that place. She gasps when appropriate and laughs when it’s called for.

She is a wonderful audience.

When I told her about a recent trip to San Fransisco, she wanted the weather, the events, the food we ate, everything. When I told how we rented bicycles and rode across the Golden Gate Bridge, ate dinner in Sausalito and took the ferry back to the city, she said, “Oh kid! What a moment!”

We ate lunch once in a charming Italian deli together. We were celebrating our birthdays which both happen in June. Dining outside on the patio under the shade of a tree enjoying time off together from our busy lives, she declared that a “moment.” She talks of moments a lot.

She is always seeking out moments.

She has a talent for noticing the smallest pleasures in life and really savoring them. When we are wrapped up in a great conversation sometimes she’ll reach out, grasp my hand and squeeze it. In those times, I know we just had a breakthrough. A synergy. A moment. If she wouldn’t have drawn attention to it, I might have let it slip by unnoticed.

I want to be more like my friend in this way. So much of life is busy and fast paced. Many of my days go by in a blur and I’m just running from one task to the next.

I fear I am missing moments that deserve to be remembered.

“We do not remember days, we remember moments.” -Cesare Pavese

Moments make our days significant.

Sweet moments make our time feel special and well spent, sad moments teach us, and by contrast, shed light on how lucky we are to have the good ones.

As I sit here and write this, I am warm and dry in my office while it rains outside. Underneath my desk, my dog is curled up on my feet and her soft fur keeps them warm. I am thinking about my sweet friend and smiling to myself about moments that we have shared together. This is a tiny moment right now, but I feel content and happy and I want to take notice and appreciate these times in my life.

This is a life, right? The smallest of moments strung together one after the other. And when we look back, they are what make us smile.

PS. As I searched through my photos to find an image for this post, I found so many little moments captured on my iPhone. The featured image here is an amazing sunset over the Salt Lake valley just before a rain storm. It was cold and windy where I stood, but I remember feeling small and awestruck by the beauty of where I live.

This last picture was taken as I raced my son home from church. The only rule was NO RUNNING. Turns out skipping is a pretty quick way to get somewhere. But it’s exhausting!

Originally published at findmeaning.net on May 22, 2015.