A Brief Moment in Time

Posted on by Wynne Leon

The other day I had a moment where I was sitting out on my back steps in the sun. My kids and I had been gardening with my mom and I stopped for a moment to look at a splinter that had penetrated my gardening gloves and was embedded in my thumb.

Of course, I couldn’t see anything without my reading glasses. But instead of getting up right away, I just sat. I sit when I meditate in the morning, I sit when I work on my computer all day, I sit when I eat dinner. And yet, I rarely just sit.

The sun was warm but not hot. There was a stirring of birds, breeze, and bees here and there around me. My family was outside of my line of sight but I could hear the sweet sing-song of Mr. D with his three-year-old voice asking my mom something. The up-and-down cadence of Miss O’s voice floated over the soundscape as she chimed in while doing her typically non-stop cartwheels. And my mom’s slightly breathless reply while she continued to work made something like a chord as I tuned in to the three of them.

My left thumb was throbbing from the splinter. As I sat, I became aware of my unconscious habit of flexing my stiff right ankle that I’d aggravated doing the stairs. The taste in my mouth was still slightly sweet from being fed a homegrown strawberry.

As my mind ticked through this inventory, I thought, “Wow, I’m alive.” With aches and pains, joys, and worries, often all at once, and tangled by thinking too much, but living, breathing, and taking it all in, nonetheless.

I received this gauzy moment in time where everything slowed down. It brought to mind a perspective I’d recently heard from Neil deGrasse Tyson that the number of humans that have ever lived (about 100 billion) is a small fraction of what is possible for the genetic variations of the human genome (something in the quadrillions). He said it like this, “Most people that could exist will never be born.” That we are here to write this and read this is, mathematically speaking, incredibly lucky.

And then Mr. D stepped on a piece of gravel in bare feet and cried out. Everything sped back up again and I was in the thick of it again – but more grateful.

For a related post, I’ve written a post on my personal blog, Our Gratefuls, about how my kids recently answered the question, “What are you grateful for today?”

(featured photo from Pexels)

43 thoughts on “A Brief Moment in Time”

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  2. While I love the entirety of your post, Wynne, two phrases jumped out at me and made me really happy. First – the ‘sweet sing song’ of Mr. D’s voice. So good! And then? Your mention of ‘gauzy moments’. Gosh. So beautiful. Thanks for the Monday morning jump start and reminder to stay in the moment. xo! 🥰

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  3. Your description of the moment “where everything slowed down” is precious and rarely mentioned in our bullet-train existence. Thank you, Wynne. May all of us have many more.

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    2. It is a truly lovely post. There’s a Pink Floyd song, Time, that starts with
      “Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
      You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way”
      I think the way you describe our “normal” sitting, by the computer, commuting in our car, gobbling up dinner, we “fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.” But with your splinter, and through the pain, you were truly present in the experience, making the most of the moment, enjoying the hour to its fullest.

      May we have more of the “splinter sitting” (minus the splinter 🙃) and less of the “normal sitting”!

      Thank you for an inspiring post!

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      1. I love the Pink Floyd song – what a great (and true) reminder. And now I’m feeling like I should get off my tush and have some more splinter sitting. And yes, the splinter wasn’t fun – but sometimes it takes a little poke to get us going, right? 🙂 Wishing you some splinter time too!

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  5. What a profound and poetic glimpse of life in the moment, Wynne. Thank you for sharing your awareness of being in the here and now, ” with aches and pains, joys, and worries, often all at once.” And yes, we are incredibly lucky to be here—and to have found kindred spirits to share the journey. Thanks for being one of them!

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  11. What a beautiful moment, Wynne. It is amazing when time slows down like the moment you described and you are able to take it all in with savory slow motion. That is a gift.

    The Degrasse Tyson statistic is quite marvelous and humbling to think about. Life itself is such a gift and this stat is a good reminder to put things into perspective when things get hard or challenging.

    Hope Mr D’s feet are feeling better. At least it wasn’t Lego!

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  14. “And then Mr. D stepped on a piece of gravel in bare feet and cried out. Everything sped back up again and I was in the thick of it again – but more grateful.” I’m grateful for great writing like this. I was enjoying the moment of calm and could relate instantly to being back in the “thick of it.” But still appreciative of the chance to slow down and be part of this great big crazy life. Beautiful Wynne.

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  16. What a powerful, yet simple post, Wynne. I’m embracing life these days more than I have previously, and it’s so life-affirming and energy-giving to just sit. To feel, listen, smell, and hear and just BE. Thanks for sharing this moment via your beautiful writing.

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