learning to savor the moment

Savor the moment

I love that phrase. It’s a reminder that there is something genuinely special about this moment in time. The circumstances that coalesced to create this moment, good and bad, are unique in history. More than that, they’re unique to you.

The person standing four feet away from you has had a different experience up to this point in time and will therefore view it differently. Sometimes those differences are meaningful. Other times they’re not. Either way, his or her experience is not yours.

The only way that we recognize the uniqueness of the moment, however, is to savor it. To pause and be present.

Mindfulness practice reminds us constantly to be present, but what does that mean? For me, it’s savoring the moment.

Savoring the moment means pausing. Instead of accepting a moment as it is, examining it. Turning it over and looking at it from different perspectives.

It means interrupting habits that enable automation. When you tie your shoes, don’t just let your muscle memory kick in. Watch as the laces loop over one another to tie a knot strong enough to maintain its integrity for a day, but no more difficult to untangle than a simple pull.

Smell your coffee and delight at the different sensations it produces. Realize that its presence is the cumulative effort of farmers who grow your coffee, shippers who transport it, roasters who bring out its flavor, brewers who attend to mixing the magical elixir.

Then, remember the customs agents who check the containers as they enter the country, government officials who draft legislation to make beans safe, the people who built the dock, or invented the roaster. The fathers, sons, mothers, and daughters who are faceless in that cup of coffee, but all lent a hand to get it there.

Savor the moment.