Every Moment Matters
On appreciating the now, and embracing fear
“I don’t have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness — it’s right in front of me if I’m paying attention and practicing gratitude.”— Brene Brown
When my kids get out of school at the beginning of every summer, we start the ritual of going swimming. Even though it’s warm during the day, the nights can get a little cool in the desert. So when we begin our yearly routine, the pool is quite cold.
And it’s that initial plunge into the pool which is the hardest. But once you take that plunge, you begin to warm up and enjoy swimming. Your body adapts, and you immerse yourself in the experience.
Yet, if you never take that initial plunge, the experience is altogether different — and it’s fear which holds us back. It’s that shock the coldness brings which keeps us from jumping in. It’s the idea of feeling uncomfortable we avoid so much, even if it’s for a short period of time.
However, this idea in our minds is usually never what the reality is. We believe our past experiences will be our future ones, too. So we don’t take the leap, and we keep ourselves from possibly experiencing something new. We end up wondering what it would have been like to be in that moment.
