EXTRAORDINARY MOMENTS

Beth Trissel's father is gravely ill in the hospital, so Bea Tifton is filling in for Beth.

By Bea Tifton

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”  Vicki Corona

            Like many people, I saw the Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks movie, “You’ve Got Mail.” In it, Kathleen Kelly says, “Sometimes I wonder about my life. I lead a small life. Well, not small, but valuable.”

            I, too, lead a small life, but it is valuable. Because I firmly believe that, within that small, rather ordinary life, there are extraordinary moments.  One just has to be open to them. I am a school librarian. I love children, you see, and I really love books. But for years I’ve been battling two autoimmune diseases that ravaged my health. Finally, I had to take an early retirement in my forties because I could not physically perform the tasks it takes to keep a library running. An ordinary life made smaller. But, no. Those moments, those extraordinary moments, do still exist. As long as we are human beings, those complex, alarming, amazing creatures, we have the power to be extraordinary. I started writing again. And I keep my eyes and my heart open for those moments.

My nighttime visitor, the owl

            A few weeks ago, I let my dogs out as usual. Immediately, I realized we had a most unusual visitor. I hustled the bewildered dogs back inside, and sat down in my porch chair. Perched in my tree, hanging on in the wind before the thunderstorm, sat a small owl, peering calmly back at me. I absolutely love owls. I managed to get a rather bad picture, and I was so excited I forgot how to use the zoom function on my phone’s camera, but mostly I just sat. We chatted, this owl and I. And looked at each other, for what seemed like a lifetime as time itself seemed to stop, just for a moment. And, after our chat, a gust of wind blew and my little owl flew away into the darkness. But, what a magical moment it was.

Dandelion with morning dew
turning to ice crystals,
another extraordinary moment

            So, my dear friends, as we approach our new year. Be open. Within your lives, be they exciting or ordinary, let in the extraordinary. Open your heart, and your minds. And have a magical year.