DEFINING MOMENTS

There are moments in our lives that stop us in our tracks. Moments that serve as reminders to what is important. 

I believe that society is starting to get a bit carried away. We have become so obsessed with having “stuff” or living a certain lifestyle that we immerse ourselves in the stress that enables us to afford the things we don’t need. “Reality” television programs are the new sitcoms and the idea of a well-rounded diet is far from normal. Even more concerning, we can’t seem to get a group of politicians on the same page long enough to affect any sort of positive change. It’s like the real life version of “red light green light.” And, we have become so enthralled with the abundance of information—be it mass media, smart phone apps, or the fear our Snapchat isn’t linking to our Vine and our hashtag reference on Twitter can’t be transferred to Facebook and all condensed on our Tumblr which pulls images from our Flickr account that houses filtered shots we have Instagramed (yes, it’s a verb now)!  I have a theory that smart phones are like yawns—if you see someone with his phone out, you automatically feel compelled to check yours.

I don’t know about you but I have gotten in this weird habit in the morning when my phone alarm goes off; as I reach over to shut it up, I grab the phone and immediately check my emails and Facebook news feed as if the urgency of that information has taken precedence over the fact that I have witnessed the start of another day. Why is it that we have gotten to a place where this is the norm? Why do we forget that every breath is not a right but an amazing gift we have been given. It is so easy to assume the sun is going to rise and fall every single day, but the reality is that we don’t know when we’re missing the next one.

All that said, life has a unique way of keeping us in check and hitting the reset button. Sometimes it is the tragic death of a loved one that reminds us how truly short our time is. Sometimes it’s that brief pause at dawn as the sun pulls out all the colors on his pallet to paint a canvas truly hypnotic to the lucky few awake to see it. And sometimes it’s the genuine innocence of an imaginative child seeking a world full of candy, toys and smiles.

If you were a kid in the early ‘90s, you were definitely proficient in the art of Nintendo repair. There was nothing more frustrating than sitting down for that final level of Zelda with your magic whistle or crouched over the Track and Field foot pad ready to cheat the cheetah with your hands like a magic drum roll only to experience the infamous malfunction. That moment when a line shoots horizontally across the screen and the bottom half is now the top, or the screen just flashes intermittently as if to tease you with the false hope of actually getting to play. But did we go running to Mommy? Did we dial up tech support to remote connect into our mess? No. We popped the game out, blew some fresh air in the console, pushed reset and were back in business!  

Let’s try to do more Nintendo repair with our own lives. By sheer nature of our surroundings and the fast paced existence we lead, we’re going to get distracted and that’s ok. I’m just saying let’s try to remember to blow some fresh air in the system every once in a while. For each person, it’s going to be different. I subscribe to high fives and waterfalls. Whatever it is that reminds you of the gifts you have been given in this wonderful life, do more of that! I think you’ll be pleased with the outcome.