Our lives have a number of occasions. Some are really enjoyable and fun, some are going to disappear as if they never happened to and some are going to be really hard. As I group these occasions in this way I already feel that there is an important lesson:
I hope that you have less and less moments that will disappear in your life.
I have known Goose (a good friend) for decades, and in one moment of our friendship, he was really sad and sorry for himself. He told me that he felt depressed because his stories were all from the past, he was no longer making any new stories in his life. And I agreed with him, I too felt very sorry for him. But we felt very different things…
While Goose felt sorry that he was not having remarkable moments, I was sad because he was not aware that he was having remarkable moments all the time!
I think that this is a really important learning so let me repeat this in a different way: life is ALWAYS happening to us, and moments just disappear if we are unaware of them!
You will only not have stories about things that happened to you last week if you are too busy with something else to notice what is happening in your life.
One of the key objectives of my teaching life is to help my students to increase their awareness, to be able to really live in the moment and to extract the maximum from this. If we have success in this we will never run out of stories and the subjective perception of the length of your life will increase to a point where you feel like you live intensely and you get great value for life!
I missed my email to you last week and I apologize. I was traveling, I was going through a tough moment making decisions, negotiating and feeling emotionally drained. And yet, even as I experienced this reality, I was trying to be present, to be living the moment.
One of the most remarkable stories of this trip happened on a Saturday morning. This was the second day I was seeing my son after a long time apart and he was loving being with me… But we were about to have a really powerful experience. He was due to get a vaccine, actually 2 shots…. So Saturday morning, a bright and sunny day, I met him at the Hospital and the waiting room had loads of interesting toys. So we explored, had some fun and laughter.
We then entered the exam room and I tried to keep him as distracted and curious as possible. But the nurse told me off and said coldly: “sit, sit him on your lap and hold him tight!” So I did. I sat him down and gave him a bear hug and told him that he needed the vaccine to be safe and while it would hurt a little I was there to hold him and support him. Then, in a flash, 2 nurses swooped in, one from each side, with two enormous needles. I barely had a chance to blink and BAM! BAM! one on each thigh and Bri… bless him… screamed!
It tore my heart.
But I held on and I told him it was going to be ok and he would get some really cool stickers on his legs because he was so brave.
He cried for seconds and then as I hugged him I felt his body relax more and become snuggly. The feeling of his trust and the moment we shared is forever burned deep in my mind.
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While this story is so meaningful to me, I would like you to take it to heart: don’t allow moments to disappear. LIVE THEM.