Life in the small moments

It's the small and ordinary that become extraordinary over time

Photo courtesy of Andrea Tummons

It is perhaps in getting older that I begin to relish, to an even greater degree, the ordinary moments of life.

This is never more pronounced than when I visit or am visited by dear friends who no longer live within arms reach.

Having moved several times between two countries we have found that our friends are now scattered across the globe.

Where once we shared the everyday minutia of raising our children and ourselves through routines and schedules and to do lists...we now find that these everyday occurences and shared experiences have been frozen in time.

Our lives are now shared through a staccato of emails and texts or calls and cards. 

When we are fortunate enough to coordiate our schedules and time and finances...we visit. 

And with each visit we afford the other a glimpse of our new lives

in our new places

with our new surroundings.

Such visits are often bookmarked and punctuated with grand gestures in an effort to showcase our new worlds and create new and shared memories. 

We regale each other with stories and tales in an effort to condense a part of our lives with and for ones that meant and mean so much to us still.

And yet...

it is a very curious thing that

for me...

as I suspect it may be for others...

it is in the sharing of ordinary moments,

that I am most grateful.

For it is within these moments that I,

and they, 

become...once again,

enfolded and emersed in the most benign yet intimate aspects of life.

These aspects are not fancy

or rehearsed

or perfected

or presented. 

They just are.

And while I do thoroughly enjoy the grand gestures of a long awaited welcome;

the shows and dinner parties...

the tours and spectacles...

it is in the shared mundane act of the every day living of our lives that I find the greatest joy.

Within these moments, we are once again able to reveal our unfiltered world...our life...as it truly is.

And so...as I visit with my friends, I cherish

taking a walk with the dog;

sharing leftovers from the fridge;

running errands around town;

selecting colors for a room;

exchanging advice for our kids.

Within these moments

and

within the perspective of time and distance

such things have become

sacred.

And to be able to share such moments with dear friends...

well...

that

is no ordinary thing.

* re-post from archives