This Magic Moment

Sometimes there are moments that seem to last forever. Not to be cliche, but, when time stands still.

My first kiss.

Finding out my grandmother died.

Getting proposed to.

Waiting for news during my mom's open heart surgery.

Finding out I was pregnant.

Hearing my daughter's first cry when she was born.

At all these times in my life, the world has slowed its spinning. The background has melted away. At least briefly, I have truly been "in the moment." Experienced nothing else besides what is actually happening right then.

And then today. It happened again.

Nothing remarkable, nothing groundbreaking. It was just a normal day. There was grocery shopping, planting tomato and pepper plants, laundry. And then there was the moment.

Outside on the back lawn, my daughter and I were making bird-feeders to hang in our tree. We hung two, and then stood back to admire them. At which point, my daughter says,

"Now let's lay in the grass!"

Which we do.

It's late afternoon, so the sun makes us squint. The grass is cold on my back and a little damp from a rain yesterday. The sky is gray blue, and the clouds move slowly, slowly past. One cloud looks like rain. The sun lights up the red and green leaves of the maple tree overhead like a stained glass window. Flannery moves to lean her head in the crook of my arm. This is when time slows. When I take in just the smell of her hair, and feel just the humid breeze on my face, and listen to the sound of birds chattering and a woodpecker tapping out a rhythm nearby. This moment lasts a hundred years. Or maybe just a second or two.

Either way, it's magic.


One day, this type of intimacy with my child will be awkward and rare. One day, she'll be too busy for spontaneous sky gazing, or too logical to let the impulse become a reality.

But this moment, it'll remain.

I won't forget.





What moments in your life have made time stand still? Good or bad, there's a gravity to these moments, a "this is really my life" quality to them. I'd love to hear about yours.