What makes a moment the one that you can remember exactly where you were, who you were with and how you felt? It is the good and the bad moments that can bring you back but mostly it seems to be those that cause the most shock that drive us back.
There have been a few in my own life that have been impactful enough to leave that “mark” that brings it all back. The birth of my children, the day I met my husband and many other personal wins. Of course the more vivid are the losses; the day I lost my mom will forever live on and unfortunately the details of that day will not soon leave.
I remember the day I met my husband. The day, the time and what he was wearing when he walked through the door. I was starting a new job and he was being introduced as the first co-worker that I would meet. I could not have known the fate that beheld us that day. We would become friends and five years later would be married so how that day is time-stamped in my brain is a mystery. It is as if “I knew”, something in me knew that that moment, that day, was worth the indelible snapshot.
More powerful are those memories that impact us despite the lack of contact. These memories pack as much punch if not more for the empathy and fear they instill. The impact of mass shootings is very real to me. It has not personally happened to me but the fact that it happens has me searching for my exit in every large crowd. I can’t sit in a movie theater without locating the exit. I steer clear of large crowds; think twice about malls and concerts. I know that while it has not happened to me it happens to someone.
9/11 will forever be that moment for a nation that we will NOT forget. I was at work that morning with all of my colleagues when someone came in the meeting and said a plane had just hit the World Trade Center. This day would never be the same…ever. It touched us all and it changed us. This was a moment that paralyzed a nation. I remember sitting intensely watching the news, the play-by-play of horror, all day, all night and again and again as the stories started to be told.
There is something about a moment, that you remember like it was yesterday, that creates a snapshot in our brains that can be recalled so vividly. At its worst it creates trauma and at its best it creates a moment; either way we are affected.
As we cannot predict when those moment that will live with us forever it is the focus, the present moment that will make sure that we don’t miss a moment. Being present is the only way we can be in the moments we are fated to live. Carpe Diem — L.
Originally published at http://alwaysstarting.com on September 21, 2019.