Cold Tangerines

I haven't posted anything recently because nothing too exciting has been going on.  But that doesn't mean life hasn't been great!  My dear friend Laura sent me a chapter out of a book called Cold Tangerines, a collection of essays about the extraordinary moments in our everyday lives.  The chapter is titled "on waiting" and it talks about how too often we are waiting for the big moments and miss the million, billion tiny little moments that make a life, a person.  It's easy to expect our life to be a movie that crescendos to a big moment and ends on a happy, feel-good note.  We're waiting for graduation, a wedding, children, financial stability, retirement, incessant happiness.  All the while we are missing the significance of daily interactions on our street, in our offices and houses, at our dinner tables... life.  We are waiting on our life to start without realizing that it is flying by.

Shauna Niequist, author of Cold Tangerines, writes:

I don't want to wait anymore. I choose to believe that there is nothing more sacred or profound than this day... The big moments are the daily, tiny moments of courage and forgiveness and hope that we grab onto and extend to one another. The big moments are in every hour, every conversation, every meal, every meeting... Today is your big moment. Moments, really. The life you've been waiting for is happening all around you.

So this past week I've relished in every moment: game night, going for a walk, sitting on my porch with friends until midnight on a Monday night, sweet phone conversations with my niece, coloring with the kids at church.  If we were given several shots at life, then these little moments wouldn't be notable. But since this is the one life we have been given, we have no choice but to make the most of every moment.  The chapter on waiting concludes with:

You are more than dust and bones. You are spirit and power and image of God. And you have been given today.