365 Ways #342–My Wish List

#342–I don’t remember what my first bike looked like. But I can actually feel my dad letting go of the seat the first time I pedaled that bike without training wheels: The exact moment when balance takes over and I play a new game with gravity. I’m poised on the brink of choice–between falling and chasing horizons. And as I dance with that decision, my dad fading into distance, I cannot know that my life is different now. Like the road I travel which has become markedly shorter, it instantly takes time.

More happiness is derived from experiences than from material things. That truth is sorely tested in this age of consumerism. With Black Friday and Christmas sales in July, you might think you can charge Joy to your AmEx. But memories are the gifts we pull off the shelf to bring past to present. And even the bad ones have value in the lessons they teach or the growth they trigger. It is the moment which gives. And the moment is the self-full gift we can give to others.

Be the present.