Just when we’ve made it to March, and we’re thinking spring may be in reach, winter goes and reminds us to not be so hasty. After the windstorm that knocked my power out for three days, I find myself incredibly thankful for the magic of working electricity, and hoping it has settled in for the duration of the snowstorm that’s falling, quite gorgeously outside my windows. The smell of sizzling bacon and pancakes fills the air as my daughter and her friend have decided that a snow day means an early afternoon brunch that they have whipped up.
As someone who tries to have the television on minimally, I only recently discovered I can access the popular show, “This is Us.” We must be in the minority of people who have not yet seen all of the episodes. Notified the night before that school would be closed, my daughter and I picked up where we left off: the first Thanksgiving episode. In one scene, one of the characters asks another, quite bluntly, “How does it feel to be dying?” The response is so incredible, “It feels like all these beautiful pieces of life are flying around me and I’m trying to catch them. When my granddaughter falls asleep in my lap, I try to catch the feeling of her breathing against me. When I make my son laugh, I try to catch the sound of him laughing – how it rolls up from his chest … but the pieces are moving faster now and I can’t catch them all. I can feel them slipping through my fingertips …”
The feelings described sound more like living than dying. I don’t know about you, but I often have these feelings that I’ve been unable to pin down. It’s the feeling of living, loving, and being in the moment, yet knowing that the moment is just that – a moment. I mostly read fiction to process reality. There are truths all around us, and living mindfully means being open to seeing and hearing them. Literature, film, and yes, even television, are ripe with reminders of who we are, and who we can become. All of us have our favorite books, films, and shows, with ideas and themes that personally resonate. As an organization that is focused on providing experiences, materials, and moments upon moments of connection with the community, we’d love to hear what your favorites are, whatever the medium. Please, stop by and tell us.
Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash