Small, Quiet Moments

As always, life has its ups and downs. Sometimes more ups than downs and sometimes more downs than ups. One of the hardest things for me recently is to learn to appreciate the small and quiet moments, and to recognize them for their importance in life and in healing.

People often can point out one or two big moments that have changed their lives. I think that it's easy to recognize the big moments as important instances, even big moments of crisis have their role. In these moments, I've learned a lot about myself. I've learned how I deal with my problems and how I don't deal with my problems.

And having grown up in a life full of crisis and stress, I feel at home there. Although my whole life I've been waiting to be done with school, and the stress that comes with school, the fact is, I hardly know what to do with myself now that I don't have that. I realized the other day, that I tend to create some problems where there aren't any, feeling that life has to be intense in order to progress. To reassure some of you, I don't create extreme problems out of thin air, making things up, and picking fights, or anything of the sort. I guess a more appropriate or accurate way of saying it is that when things are quiet and calm, I have a tendency to think that something is wrong, or sometimes it's that I feel something will go wrong.

I'm coming to the realization, however, that these moments of calmness are just as important, if not more important to life. I've always believed that the small actions in life, such as smiling at a stranger, say a lot more than the big actions. I've just never extended that to seemingly small, quiet moments. I feel, however, that it's these small moments that create the future moments. Taking the time in a calm moment, when everything seems right, to ponder and reflect brings me peace and happiness. It, somehow, makes everything seem worth the stress and heartache, and can even make a happy time even happier.

I think that's what those moments are all about, building up a storage of good moments to sustain us through whatever we face. It just takes some time getting used to stopping and enjoying the calmness.