I think many of us long to have those experiences where our breath is taken from us and we are caught in inexpressible beauty. Sometimes it is these places where we experience the space between where we've been and where we're going for the first time. It is the honesty of these situations that is so striking in their beauty and fleeting nature. These times bring the present as it pulls at all of where we've been to become who we are now in a moment of intense transformation and surprise. Whether we have stopped in our very paths by a rising sun or have said goodbye to an old friend who we have only known during brief visits and heartfelt conversation. "See you next time." Tomorrow is never certain, however real today and yesterday have been.
It is in this attention that is the fixture of our present that we begin to really notice life that we may not have noticed before. We may notice something that is closer to us than ever before. The change that is happening swirls about in a mixture of emotion. How does this happen when our worlds collide with the changing forces that we can never stop?
In tenderness, our reality has shifted and our present is raw. We may be drawn to the edges beyond our will and encounter ourselves as we never have before. At the intersection between beginning and ending, there is that liminal middle space I wrote of earlier. A smile emerges when an experience we need to recognize is acknowledge, however sad and difficult the place we have is. This isn't a smile of joy, it's a smile of our own understanding that our lives matter. It is the expression of gratitude that this experience exists at all.
