.....single moments

Yogis,

Sending this out a little early before everyone dives head first into the holidays……………

I believe I was about 12.  Living in Georgia in a house on a wooded cul-de-sac.  We had a big finished basement where my friends and I spent much of our time.  One room with a shag carpet and a built in bar where we did quite a bit of dancing in our knee high go-go boots.  A family type room which was rarely used for some reason.  And finally one with a black and white checked carpet that held the ping pong table and my many generations of hamsters.

I can remember the moment like it was yesterday.  Our whole family was in that family room watching slides.  Remember them?  My dad would take pictures – everyday ones, events, trips – and they would be developed into slides which we would watch one by one on a screen that we set up. 

It was a simple picture of a neighborhood Siamese cat curled up asleep on our back deck.  He would do that often even though, or maybe because, my mom is not a fan of cats (animals always seem to know).  So this picture goes up and a small voice inside of me says ‘Notice this moment.  Notice what it feels like to be you.  You looking at this picture in this room at this age.  Remember this moment so when you are older you can see if “you” are the same.’……..or something to that effect. Time stood still.

It was as if the Universe scooped me up for that single moment in time to share a thought, and then set me gently back down into my 12 year old life so I could get back to writing the rules for the new girls club I was forming. I remember it so clearly.

When we look back through our lives what we remember most are the moments. Not the weeks, or trips or parties, or ceremonies…..but single moments within them. When time briefly stands still and life becomes vivid for just that moment. These may be the moments of pure joy or those of sudden overwhelming grief …..  But often they are ordinary moments that for some reason awakened us from our daze. The rest are more like a blurred swirl of colors and shapes which create a patchwork of your life.

So here we are in the holidays. All of the shopping and preparation is done. Everything we have been ‘getting ready for’ is now about to happen. Let’s awaken to at least one of the moments in this current swirl that is passing through.

Find one time in the midst of it all this week to stop. Completely. Close your eyes and notice your breath. Hear the sounds around you.  Open your eyes and ‘see’. Watch the slide of your life for just one moment. No thoughts. Simply being. Noticing what it is like to be ‘you’, at this age, in this place, watching. You observing you. 

Then go back and have some more pie.

I miss those go-go boots,
SARAH