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.