If we are fortunate, we “develop the imaginary resources to go through life and find the soulful moments,” as my close friend Kelly said so eloquently during one of our recent weekly conversations.
Above you see such a moment from my life, enjoying a fried chicken sandwich with my daughter, Ruchi. Mundane as it may have been, our camaraderie and mutual joy lifted it to great heights.
Yet there are other times for me when meaning seems in desperate supply. I yearn for something transcendent to lift me from the mind-numbing details of life. That is when the resources mentioned above are my lifeboat.
When I am mindful I turn toward my thinking to find a way to positively reframe current events, and generate a refreshing perspective. Perhaps I see them as a necessary step back to the alluringly worthwhile. Or I might dive straight into the discomfort as a portal to my own moment of the soul, as when I meditate on my boredom seeking its anxiety-provoking essence only to watch it disappear under scrutiny.
Where are your most precious moments to be found, and how do you rouse them when they seem elusive?
“Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have – life itself.” – Walter Anderson
