This Beautiful Moment

There is a plain wooden sign posted in a park in California. It says: This Beautiful Moment. That’s all, just: This Beautiful Moment.  I saw it on the blog: So Much Beauty Here: http://somuchbeautyhere.blogspot.com/

For some reason this resonated for me. It's what so many of us struggle with every day. It invites the reader/observer to just stop, be still and be. Take it all in. This beautiful moment. That’s all. I have this feeling when I read a particularly beautiful phrase or passage in a book, when I see the night sky exploding with stars, when I see colors in a painting that by some miracle render an image, when I see afternoon light across the marshy grassland in the low country of South Carolina, when I hear Rachmaninoff.

It seems we have forgotten how to do this. We have moments, that’s for sure, but children do this as a matter of course. Everything is fresh and shiny. When my children were young, watching them doing and seeing and hearing for the first time was a source of unimagined joy. It was as if I was experiencing it all again for the first time. If there was music they liked they would dance. If there was a dog they thought was pretty, they patted it. If there was chocolate, they ate it. It was simple. No complex moral issues or repercussions, i.e. Will people think I’m crazy if I dance? Will the owner think I am presumptuous if I pat their dog? Will I get fat if I eat that?

If this is all there is, and I’m not saying it is or isn’t, I say, take it all in. Isn’t that the gift we have as artists, or for that matter human beings? Not trying to proselytize. Just saying, savor this beautiful moment.

 

Spring

I missed all of February and here it is almost the end of March! I’ve been editing, editing, editing, writing, writing, writing!!!! It’s been a very productive and creative seven weeks for me and I’m very happy with the results. February has typically been a blue (or gray) month for me, but this year it was full of color!

Still, I’ve thought of the importance of my blog many times. The importance to me, anyway. It’s a place to muse and contemplate some of life’s bigger issues. No mind-blowing, philosophical breakthroughs that the world should know about, but some quiet realizations for sure. We all have those moments of “insight” but they are ephemeral.  A wisp of absolute clarity that is gone in a moment. This blog helps me hang on to those moments, and hopefully helps you, too, Dear Reader. If you are out there, I’d love for you to drop by and leave a word or two. The comment box has magically appeared at the end of each blog now, so you can do so without a hassle.

Okay, so how am I doing on my Word for the year? My words were actually phrases:

Practice being really present

Be in the NOW

Observe the splendor of Timing

I’m trying on all fronts. I am discarding things that make me unhappy for the most part. This is an ongoing battle. For example, I took my eleven year old dog to see the ocean (she had never seen it before) instead of going to a funeral. That was truly being in the now moment and something I had wanted to do for a while. The problem is, I still feel bad about it. Working on it.

My biggest accomplishment by far has been writing fulltime. Every. Single. Day. The joy is immeasurable. Still trying to not feeling guilty about being out in the workforce. Working on it.