MILESTONE MOMENTS

There are many moments in our lives that we want to hold on and never let go.  These “milestone moments” are often recalled in our daydreams as our minds wander, much like a CD or DVD looking for what track number to play. We try to relive the feeling, visualize certain peoples’ faces, strive to hear every single sound, and breathe in all the surrounding aromas. For the moment, we are back at high school opening up our locker, or on vacation, walking down the beach searching for seashells.

This past week, I reflected on some past milestone moments --

* Sitting with my wife watching a movie…all alone (a very rare moment when raising a family)

* Completing a large, month-long project

* An unexpected hug from my third-born child, Lauren

* Birds loudly welcoming the pending dawn and the smell of a morning rain as I walked to the neighborhood YMCA at 5:30 AM

* A late night phone call from a friend – exchanging stories; exchanging prayers of support and wishes for success

But despite my best efforts, the memories slipped from my mind and back into the past.

Edgar Allan Poe once wrote, “The moment is temporary, but the memory is forever.”  And, he was so very right.

However, there is a catch.

For the moment to be a memory means that it was either something that was a result of much work, great fortune, that the moment was forced upon us in the middle of the night, or it was after a series of events largely out of our control. Usually something that was extraordinarily pleasant or extraordinarily painful seems to be readily recalled on our mind’s television screen.

This coming week, you will find yourself embracing or confronting many such moments. I, like you, do not have a choice of the mixture of great, good, bad or indifferent moments. Life will come. The days will arrive. The moments will pass.

However, there is a way to make certain moments live forever. It’s quite simple; the idea is thousands of years old.

How?

By helping someone else achieve a “milestone” moment – a moment of happiness, of joy, of unprecedented success. It can be as small as an unexpected hug or as large as a courageous act of love to save another life. It’s your choice. It’s my choice. It is our choice to make this moment, among all the other moments before, live forever.

Until Next Friday,

Photo by Morgan David de Lossy on Unsplash