This morning when I woke up, I thought about life being snippets. Life is moments. When you glance back, you sure don't remember whole days. You don't remember whole years, at least I don't! I remember bits and pieces and snippets and moments. I remember hugs and tears and moments. I remember swelling with pride and lumps in my throat at graduations and weddings and soccer games. I remember moments of pain, moments of joy, moments of rage, moments of regret, moments of awe, moments of humility, moments of disgrace.
I remember stumbling out of a pawn shop crying because we were so poor and I was pawning blue sapphire jewelry.
I remember standing in the rain at a soccer game, cheering and screaming, not even noticing the mud or the wet jeans and shoes, just watching that ball moving toward the goalie.
I remember rolling around in leaves when I was a child, raking them in big piles and running and jumping gleefully in the center.
I remember the pull of a big fish on a line.
I remember the fear when my car slid on ice, turned in a circle and slammed into a snowbank when I was carporting a load of children to kindergarten!
I remember the surprise of hearing "It's a girl!" when we knew for 9 months that it was a boy, the boy we were hoping for, waiting for, anxious for.
I remember slamming my purse on a desk and lunging over the desk at the school principal and glancing over my shoulder to see the secretary with her hand on the phone. I remember rage.
I remember hearing my name called at a banquet in a room full of people and standing up and grinning ear to ear.
I remember diving under a lighthouse in the cold water of the St. Mary's River and discovering a secret room.
And I remember lots more snippets of life. Life is moments, tied together with a strong braided cord that is yours and yours alone. Life is moments tied on that cord, daily moments tied on that cord. Some of those moments slip off the cord and you forget about them. But others were tied tightly, with double knots.
Sometimes you sit quietly and hold the cord in your hands and run your fingers over the knots, remembering.
Life is moments. And if you think about it like that, you know you can handle it, if it's only a moment you're dealing with, you can handle it. Moment by Moment.
