I took this pic during one of my trips to the Big Island - I was driving from Kona to Waimea, ultimately on my way to Upolu Point. (In fact, my very first blog on these pages expresses a bit of my impressions of my time there. You can see that here. ) I was so invigorated and elevated by what I felt and saw, I just had to stop the car and take a picture to "capture the moment".
In fact, the moment was already captured by my soul (although the pic does make it a bit easier to share it with you now). The soul is no fool. It has wisdom that comes from being eternal. It knows what is important and records it all. The question is: What do we do with that "recording"? If we stop our racing minds (or cars) long enough, we can bring that awareness to our consciousness - and then it becomes much more accessible to us.
Echoing the words of Rabbi Tzvi Freeman on my track, Purify Time , each day has something of beauty and value unique to that day alone. If we can try to recognize when it presents itself to us, the experience just might not be relegated to the deep stacks (remember when deep background books in research libraries were relegated to the "stacks"?) of our archives. Then we might have more ready access to those wonderful gifts of beauty.
It's almost like this. Say your dearest, most beloved friend gives you a gift, all wrapped up with lovely colors and bows. And then you take that gift, unopened, and put it in sub-basement six.
So I ask you - and I ask myself - the question: Can we stop just long enough to behold what gift of beauty (or love or kindness or happiness) we are given today?