The Power of The Moment
And how to harness it
They say a year can do a lot to a person. I don’t think so.
When I look back, and think really hard, the year is made up of a finite number of infinite moments. To point out an exact point in time when a change occurred, or something happened, seems almost impossible. It feels as if one might as well stick out their hands in the darkness, groping here and there in search of a particular object, only to find that the darkness itself is what they have been searching for throughout. There was never any definite thing to hold on to, to begin with.
Take, for instance, the pandemic. It has become a tangible reality to us now, more than a year later. But think back to when we first had the bomb drop on us, the first COVID case being reported in Pakistan (or any other country, for that matter).
There had been a moment just before that, when we had no such fear, when our minds had not allowed the virus to cross the Chinese border, when half the nation had very well thought the virus could only inflict the Chinese (quite deservingly so, according to some conspiracists!). And then the next moment, everything had flipped over. The unacceptable whim had suddenly become an unignorable reality.
The Need for Acceptance
I think the line between the real and unreal — whether it is a catastrophic event, an everyday possibility, a tough decision that needs making, or a change of heart and mind that keeps tugging at us for acceptance — is just that, a LINE! A very thin, sharp line. You never know when you topple over to the entire world that lies waiting on the other side.
In my humble opinion, any and all “truly complete” changes that we undergo, and the lessons we learn truly submissively, are by the same principle. There could be countless reasons and happenings that bring us closer to the line, but in the end, it is the true realization, the submission to the idea, in a single undefinable moment — a moment that can itself be divided into thousands of instances where we fail to point out “exactly when and how” — that true change occurs. The turning over a new leaf.
In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.
-Theodore Roosevelt
Bringing the Change
Let me cite an example. We all have heard countless times that we should be grateful for everything, and not complain. But how many of us are thankful for even the most prestigious of blessings — in the way that the essence of this beautiful trait truly demands?
Shamefully, not many of us. But during the lockdown, one day, as I loathed over the mundane task of laying out dinner yet again, a thought crossed my mind, the same that is induced into us since childhood — that there are millions of people out there hungry, and while I still haven’t been added to the list as yet.
Every morsel of mine is a luxury for those out there. Surprisingly, giving in to the thought at that moment is what caused the much-required change in myself, and not the thought itself, since it was not the first time it had come to mind. Since then, I have never found myself complaining over any aspect of the food again!
I have learned, thus, that the key to true change is giving in, submitting to what is right, in that very moment. But I have also learned the gravity of every drop that makes the ocean. One drop is one too many when the ocean is full. But dry it up and every drop is too precious to lose.
It is being present at the moment, being mindful of the drops that we contribute, drip by drip, that brings us closer to the line of CHANGE. The last drop that causes the topple might, quite paradoxically, be the cause and not be it at the same time. Because the last drop would not be the last drop in the absence of the first. It is as though every moment is a collection of micro-moments, an infinity in itself!
It is these collections of minute changes in unmeasurable moments that make a year feel like a year. For someone who does not go through these, the year might only have passed in the spur of a moment.
