What is a Moment Worth?

A moment.  A glance.  A fleeting thought…. what is a moment?  You cannot catch it and keep it in a jar, like a bug. Holding it is like trying to hold onto the wind.  You cannot push pause to look at it better.  It is here and gone, most of them pass without us even knowing they came by.  But what is the value of a moment? 

A moment.  A second.  A breath… the first gaze into a newborn’s eye’s and time seems to stop.  A first kiss.  Wedding vows.  That moment when the ring slips on your finger.  Some moments are engraved on our hearts, and the camera of our mind remembers them better then a Canon ever could.  But they are still just moments.

Why do some moments seem seared into our souls, while millions of others slip by each day, without a thought?  Most of the time, moments come and go, each on the tail of the last one, in a seemingly invisible strand of time.  But once in a while, the extraordinary moment stops us.  We pause.  We look.  We notice.  And we hold onto that moment, even if it is just for a second, and it becomes ours.  Sometimes they are the expected ones.  The first cry of the first child.  But other times, they are just seemingly inconsequential and totally ordinary moments.  But somehow, we are able to grasp them, hold them in our hands, and cherish them, for just a moment. 

The ordinary flow of time stops and we are completely surrounded by this moment.  Our senses feel, hear and see everything with amazing clarity and nothing else matters.  This moment is everything.  This moment is eternity.  And then it is gone, like a breath.  But we were there, for an instant.  We held time in our hands and captured it.  We held onto a moment.  Not with a camera, not by journaling, but by living it.  Right there, in that second of ordinary-ness. 

What is the va lue of a moment?  Sometimes, a moment is eternity.  Have you ever lost a child, or talked to a grieving parent?  The last kiss, the last glance, the last goodbye.  Moments that were not noticed at the time, but become more treasured then a thousand jewels.  The moment he looked back and smiled.  The hug before she walked out the door.  The moments that never mattered before suddenly become everything.  What is the value of a moment? 

So, really, what is the value of a moment?  A second?  A glance that stops time?  It’s like asking the value of a cell.  The value of DNA.  The value of a soul.  A moment is everything.  Eternity.  Life. 

A moment is life.  So today, when your little ones are crying and supper is late, when your laundry is piled up and you want to run away… stop.  Just stop everything and hold onto the moment.  You can hold time in your hand.  A breath.  A touch.  A look.  Hold onto it.  Feel it, see it, hear it.  A moment.  Just a moment, nothing great.  But it is everything. 

 

 

 

Linked to Thought-Provoking Thursdays