JANUARY 3
Love the moment, and the energy of that moment will spread
beyond all boundaries.
—CORITA KENTOne of the most healing things it is possible to do when one
is experiencing profound grief is to try to isolate occasional
wonderful moments from the stream of time.
While we may wonder—How can I bear it, all those years
ahead without him/her?—we live our lives in moments, hours,
days. The future will have its aspect of emptiness. But if this
moment is wonderful—this gathering of dear ones, this walk
in the woods, this exchange with a child, this bite of apple,
this cup of tea—let’s savor it.
I once participated in a human relations workshop on
setting limits—a task at which I, like many women, am often
neither wise nor skilled. The exercise was to walk around
in the roomful of people, imagining you were enclosed in a
transparent globe, the dimensions of which were of your
own choosing. It was a wonderfully freeing adventure—this
imagined moment of being-without-connection. Perhaps in
just such a way we can try to cherish the good moments of
our lives. Instead of thinking: Before this I was sad. After this
I will be sad, we could try: For now, I will be in this moment
only and relish its goodness.
Sometimes the long view is not what I need. I need this moment,
without hostage to past or future, experienced for itself alone.