Did you know a moment is roughly ninety seconds? If you’re not careful, however, you can often get trapped in one. For some, these are ninety seconds of regret. For others, it’s a moment’s worth of lost love.
Yet, there is wisdom in starting over; there is heart in forgetting. If you can’t bear to carry a moment further, there is happiness in setting it down. If you don’t know how, set it down anywhere, and continue walking until you can’t remember it anymore. Things happen, and then they stop happening. They don’t need to define what comes next.
New things are going to happen to you. You’ll see better skies. If you do it moderately right, there’ll be more moments that are easier to carry. It’s a long life; surely, you can smile for ninety seconds.
If you want to build a home in a moment, build it around your mother telling you things are okay. If you’re going to set camp in time, set it near the table that’s echoing of laughter. There are no rules; you can set up shop on a relaxing October morning as you lie in bed looking at the single strand of light trying to peek at you from between your curtains.
There is no meaning to this, but there can be if you create it; that’s all any of us are doing. Sometimes, it works wonders. Other times, you’re stuck in a tiny moment of failure for over half a decade, lamenting over how you could’ve been better. If you have to create meaning, make sure you don’t punish yourself.
If you’re like most people, you’re probably not as terrible. The world runs on people like you—those who carry a sort of unmatched hope in their eyes, those who tell people to have a great day. Yet, if you’re going to be good, promise me you won’t do it out of regret.
Remember, the goal is not to walk as far as possible. It’s to not miss the bunch of daffodils growing in the grass. If you walk with too much weight on your heart, you often miss the daffodils. Sometimes, you miss something far more important. Not that flowers aren’t important.
In my experience, they have proven to be the most important of them all. And yet, I had to forget some I saw a long time ago; the October sky I saw today demanded it.
So, I walked away.