When I was mentoring a group of women going through separation and divorce, the pain they experienced meant that the piece of advice I gave most often was, “Forget taking it a day at a time. Take it a minute at a time. Heck – take it a second at a time if you need to.”
Sometimes, when even making it through the day seems like scaling the highest mountain, making it through a moment is fine. Just fine. And before you know it – because life is made up of moments – you’ve made it to the top and stand there, taking almighty lungfuls of air, amazed at where you’ve come from.
But it’s not just that moments are easy; what’s important here is that each moment is full of grace. Grace as in a gift. A gift that’s presented to you without you having to do much other than just breathe in and out and what’s inside? Choice.
A moment is all we need to decide we’ll make the phone call and end that rift. That we’ll read to that child instead of plonking her down in front of the telly. That we’ll get on the treadmill. That we’ll brush our partner’s arm as we walk past. That we’ll smile at a stranger. That we’ll look good and stand up straight not matter what our age, weight, or financial state. That we’ll take a risk.
Grace in each moment, and yet, it’s at the start of each year that we resolve to do whatever it is we think that we need to do.
Because the world didn’t end with the end of the Mayan calendar, we now have a bunch of pundits telling us that the Mayan calendar didn’t signal a literal end to the world, but the end of the world as we know it, to usher in a new era of enlightenment.
Cool. But what for?
I’m not saying we couldn’t do with a new era of enlightenment, but once again, I reckon we’ve gone for the gag gift in the grab bag. Millions of moments of endless opportunity, or one chunk of niceness? Personal choice, or being at the whim of the cycling stars and planets?
We are all accountable to someone – Jesus, Buddha, your Higher Consciousness, the universe, our kids – and I wonder about the Big Interview when our many moments are done, maybe a short time from now, maybe longer.
“So! How’d you go? Did you use and expand all the gifts and talents I gave you?”
“Yeah… about those. I didn’t get to too many. You know, waiting for a New Age of Enlightenment and all.”
“Oh. What about looking after your fellow human beings?”
“I fit in as many as I could once the New Age of Enlightenment came along. You know… in between trying to get enlightened.”
“And what about looking after the planet? Making sure governments were doing the right thing?”
“Well, I was planning to write some letters via Amnesty. But I was waiting for the governments to get…”
“Enlightened. I know.”
We are just a few hours away from a new year. But just a moment away from a changed life.
I’m running on ahead.