The Best Memories Are Happening Now

Do you know that feeling of complete awe that you get when you look outside a window on a plane and are greeted by an array of breathless clouds?

I just can’t help but sit there wide-eyed in silence while I watch them pass by. As I look around the plane I see people listening to music, sleeping or watching whatever entertainment is available to them. And I wonder to myself, “Is anyone getting this? Have you taken a look outside?” I’m sure everyone is in his or her own world, as I am in mine, so I treat the moment as a private exchange between nature and myself, and continue to do so for the rest of the flight.

Whenever I have a feeling like the one I experienced on the plane, I often tell myself these words, “You are here.” It is a reminder that the world stops to allow me to share a moment with the world. My soul fills with both feelings of gratefulness and loss as I hang between the start and end of a moment’s passing. And soon I am released from its grip and am forced to continue on with life.

This is how, I suppose, memories are created.

In this moment, as I absorb the view of downtown’s skyline, I am unmoving. The fog hides the top of every building and blurs my view of places afar. Fellow students speckle my peripherals as they occupy vacant tables and continue to converse in low tones. The streets are filled with parallel parkers and the coming and goings of destination-focused pedestrians. Shining billboards attract my attention and I’m left distracted. I don’t want to leave a place that’s so visually appealing and creatively nourishing, but it’s approaching 8pm and I know I must go. I take my leave, ever so hesitantly, putting the moment to rest and letting go of its vibrancy.

“I am here”, I say to myself, as the instant morphs into a memory and I’m off to pursue the next one.