This is the most important question I have ever asked on R/S....?

Question

It rained tonight, for about two minutes, here in Surprise, AZ. I counted the raindrops on the sidewalk out front as they fell. Tiny splash, one. Even tinier splash, two. And even though it lasted such a short time, I had my family rush to the door and we all went out into the now cool desert night and danced about like a mosh pit of four. It was such a little thing, and yet, it was a celebration, like the fourth of July, New Year's Day and Christmas all wrapped up in one inconsequential sprinkling. I will still have to water the lemon trees tomorrow, and now the little drops in the desert dust on our vehicles make them look like the have the poxy. But, I will remember my son Santiago running about under the streetlight, trying to catch raindrops on his tongue, and my wife, Chili, giggling, and doing a pogo dance over by the palm trees.
Here is the question:
Why aren't there more moments like this in life?

zap, my wife married a guy(me), named Kiki. She must be wrongerererer than me.

Answer 1

This reminds me of the snow in Tucson this past January. People were so cheerful the next day. It was wonderful :)

There are plenty of opportunities for moments like this in life; if we are open to them, we can see them. However, if we noticed them more often, perhaps they would lose something? They are so special because they are so seemingly rare.

Answer 2

Well, I am probably guilty of letting many of those moments slip by too, but I try not to. The older I get and more of my family leaves me to fight it out alone here the more I think back to all the moments I had when they were alive and how I wished I could have them back again. But, I can't so I have to relish what I have here and now. I work with children on a daily basis so those moments come often when I'm not cleaning up spilled milk or play doh ground into the carpet...but then again, those are probably the same kinds of things I would miss if the kids weren't there.
I appreciate your question. Thanks for the opportunity to give my 2 cents' worth. Have a nice day!

Answer 3

They're there 8 track mind...they're there. Mostly we just don't notice. We're too busy chasing happiness and perfection that we don't notice the little things.

I went through a rough patch lately and during the last few days realised it was utterly my own fault. You get this fixed idea in your head of what you want, what you think would make you happy, that all the good stuff passes you by.

So I forced myself to slow down and take a look around...and suddenly I noticed all these little things...simple trivial things that give such pleasure when you stop to enjoy them. Toasting a marshmallow, laughing at a bird trying to catch an elusive worm, the smile on my fiance's face.

Sometimes you HAVE to set a little time aside to do something special...an afternoon picnic or something similarly simple yet pleasurable. Take the time to notice the little things and you'll realise they are all around.

I get laughed at when I say this to most people...they say the answer is to work, work, work...money, money, money Then six months later I see them again, prematurely gray, stick thin and getting divorced...still working their a**es off and still chasing elusive happiness.

I say seize the moment.

Answer 4

Life is somewhat anonymous except when comes to those who might embrace it. It is yet truly ubiquitous as it carries. And fortunate are those who would otherwise look askance, now remanded to the embrace, though these same as quickly may be and feel indeed unfortunate... But what gold!

Fortunate again is he or she who can keep a one especial experience or the many: the wanderer -- those mystic travelers; again the astronomer, and the great writer as does your writing skill demonstrated above give evidence to; and there is the man of muses -- the musician; and the thinker; the doting mom, father, the doting child; above all and the greatest of these, the open hearted. Yet there are many, much more of these noble perceivers than we might be given to suspect...

I have not evidenced ever any the question that has levied so bright a procession of well-lit answers or whose refrains draw forth such fertility. What reflections!

I should mention here that "Snagelfritz" above summons in me a very curious muse and reflection -- the Tumbleweed as Christmas Tree...

As life does intensify -- and that it will, have no doubt -- we shall see more of like muses and creations and notions as does your writing above stand as a first report; and again shall come brave actions.

O man of the Earth, what a question and queue of answers! 'All of it.

Answer 5

Most moments like that are clouded. For example, it is a snowy day and the family is together in the snow and in home by the fire laughing and sipping hot cocoa, but your mind is elsewhere in a fog, in an exam, a project, an illness, etc. The moment is stolen and lost as if it never existed, but it is great that people can still enjoy the simple yet great moments from time to time. However, I do believe that people can become free and embrace every moment.

Answer 6

Dear eight track -

I enjoyed your report of a joyful time in the rain. It is like that here in the great northwest when the sun shines. Everyone flocks outside to soak it up.

In my long years on this earth I have learned to truly appreciate life's little pockets of joy. They are few and far between sometimes. And I agree there should be more of them. My most favorite are when my children are laughing and dancing around the house.

Find something each day to bring a smile to the ones you love.

Take time to listen to your son at his level. Do something unexpected & sweet for your wife.

We come from different places geographically and spiritually, but I get what you are saying about how seldom these moments are.

Keep writing, you are good at it! Here's to everyone's pockets of joy!!- Redeemed

Answer 7

What a delightful question and shared moment! I could almost feel the water on my face and smell the rain on the sand...


As to why thee aren't more such moments, part of it is because we are too busy running our lives to stop and live. If we would stop and look more, we would have more moments like this. If people could look at life as not an eventual end that we are all heading toward, but a series of moments just like that one, we would live in the moment much more often, I suspect.

The other reason is that Mother nature doesn't give us these truly wonderful moments all the time, with intensely sensual natural elements, like a beautiful desert rain, which lends itself to having people revel in the bounty from the sky.

Truly, we couldn't really have these moments all the time, for they would begin to lose their appeal just by virtue of repetition, and the intensity of the joy is something that would be overwhelming if experienced too often.

But those moments like yours, when experienced and savored, are what carry us sometimes, through the desert to the next rain.

Many blessings,
Lady M

Answer 8

Good question. If there was, could we emotionally handle it? Joy can be exhausting. One needs quiet time to recharge as well.

Also, if we didn't have the bad times, and the boring times, then we would take the good times for granted, and we would not appreciate it. For example, the brief sprinkle of rain would have gone un-noticed here on the East Coast, and no one would have cared. You got excited because it was rare, and anything rare is precious.

Of course, I also believe that you make your own joy by how you interpret events in your life. You can decide, for the most part, to be happy or sad.

Answer 9

A moment recently that I will never forget. We were camping and everyone one but myself and my middle daughter were sleeping for the night. She was walking around the fire pit and stumbled and came very close to tumbling into the fire.

She asked me the question hypothetically "what would you have done if I fell in the fire"?

I told her that it wouldn't happen while I was here, I would stop it (being the big protector daddy that i am).

She asked me what if you got hurt saving me?

I told her it didn't matter, even if it meant I would die I would save her.

She started bawling and jumped into my arms.

It was a beautiful moment.

They may not all be monumental, but even my son crawling up on my chest and napping there near brings a joyful tear to my eye.

Thanks that was beautiful and brought up many great memories, you made my night. I wish I could give it a second star, okay well I did.

Answer 10

A lot of people will tell you that there are, you just have to find them. And this is true. But what is truer is that you have to MAKE them. You were a part of what created your delightful and utterly eloquent evening. Make some more. Look for frogs. Dance inside. Not every moment will be poignant but many people seem to forget that being a part of the creation of the moment doesn't diminish what happens in it at all.

And thank you for the beautiful telling. I really needed it tonight.