Moments

So many moments in life are like a sunset.  You go about your business, hardly paying attention, when the color catches your eye.

It almost takes your breath away. 

You want to capture it, just that way.  With the light illuminating the edges of the clouds.

It changes so quickly. 

The clouds shift, the sun lowers

The colors begin to fade.

Until at last you are left with the smallest remnant of what once was.

Everything back to normal.

The daily grind.

My sisters, sisters-in-law, and my mother all went to Time Out for Women last weekend.  It wasn't nearly as relaxing as hoped for, at least for me.  I was selling lunch tickets right up till the opening prayer of the Friday night event.  Then it was an early morning and no relaxation for me until the last person who purchased a lunch ticket was through the line on Saturday afternoon.

But despite the stress of a risky event that was pushed through by myself regardless of what upper management said (and turned out to be a huge success by the way), there were those moments of brilliant color to catch me by surprise and leave me happy, radiant, speechless, teary, and at peace.

The color was the friends and the laughter.  Hearing my name shouted above the crowd and turning to see a dear friend whom I thought was in the Caribbean. 

Friends from wards and days gone by catching my eye and sharing a quick hug and a smile.

People, women, I haven't seen in over 7 years showing up and exchanging greetings.

The color was in the music that brought peace, laughter, comfort.

It was in the messages given that refilled my mostly empty cup.

Like the sunset they fade.  The feelings lessen.  I start to forget the comfort those words, the music, brought as the daily grind becomes the reality once again.

But there's always the memory.  The remnants of the sunset that have left images in my mind's eye.  It's not as vibrant as reality, but it is enough to help me remember at least some of it.

Regain some of the feelings.  Give pause to sit and ponder and remember the color that was so breath taking.