Those Little Moments......

I find myself going "apoya" as I climb down the stairs. I start laughing out loud sitting down on the same stair realizing that I am the only one awake. It is after all, 4.30 in the morning!

I am busy doing dishes in the kitchen, hear my puppy go "kuyy....", look out to see, only to realize that the yelp is from their play, not failing to notice the colors on the trees. I smile and say "apoya"!

It is a dreary cold wintry kind of a day, a neighbor sends me a picture of an owl perched on his branch and looking at the picture, I go, "apoya".



As if on cue, just then, I receive a text message from my niece saying that I am a source of comfort for her. I am deeply touched.

Driving down the hilly road, I realize that the seasons are changing but then every now and then we get a spring-like day, leading us to believe that the good season is not far away making me go apoya for that one good day!

I see that my neighbor is painstakingly keeping her lawn green by mowing all the fallen leaves either into her bag or our yard as the mower blows it away. I smile. I know that she loves the perfect green grass and me, well I love the imperfectly perfect leaves on the grass. What a riot of colors they are, even fallen. I go out to rake all the leaves into the flower beds anyways and just as I am doing that, I notice this lone lavender flower rising above smiling at me, making me go "APOYA"! I am truly delighted - at the flower, the color, the surprise of it and the way I find it - in my vegetable patch!



My students are delighted with a book that we have been reading and when I suggest that we read that book out of turn, I hear them all go "apoya" at once, making me go "apoya" too!

We are walking on the beach. I am delighted to watch the sunrise. Now that the sun has risen, as I focus on the sand I am walking on, I see a......pale crab lying there quietly and I go "apoya" - for one, I am truly surprised to find that treasure and two I realized that I had mistaken that for a plastic fork and had only bent down further to pick it up to reach it to its place in the recycle bin only to see that it is a crab! It would have been such a narrow escape from my apoya moment!



As we continued our walk with DH a mile ahead of me as usual, I looked up to realize he is waiting for me. As I get closer, he shows me something in his palm and as I excitedly go 'a marble?', his apoya moment screams, 'don't touch'! When I leaned closer for a better look, well, I cannot describe what it is, but it did look like a very soft perfect round egg with a dark circle floating inside of it. We decide to let it back into the water and move on quietly, each enjoying our little apoya moment! A little internet sleuthing says that it is called salp.



As we continue walking, I also find this
, not to forget the interesting shells giving me many more apoya moments.

We are back. I open "Illusions" randomly and the page I land on says, "Donald, I have come to the conclusion that you just don't live in this world." "Of course not, can you tell me one person who does?" says Shimoda. I am hooked on to that page, as I realize my apoya moment giving me the lesson of a lifetime again! Bach hasn't failed me yet! The truth is we all live in our minds and no minds, not even two minds that are in love are thinking of the same thing at the same time. In that context, we all live in our own worlds and have the control to create those 'apoya' moments for ourselves - yes, no matter what else is happening in our lives. You know they say that a person can be happy and unhappy at the same time. Just because we are unhappy in a situation doesn't mean we do not come across those happy moments. We do. They are after all only moments and there ought to be some that are wonderful. We need to be aware of that and capture them - life after all is not defined only by one thing or another. We might have just ignored that moment, or we spend thinking about that one moment of happiness wanting to re-create that we forget the million other apoya moments in our lives that keep showing up.

We talk of Thanksgiving which has of course taken different flavors as the years have gone by, and as we reflect on the day, I think it is important that we be thankful for all the apoya moments that come our way - teaching us not to miss them so that we become aware that we have a rich fulfilling life. And yes, I do capture my apoya moments not for just how beautiful they are but, what they have given me.

And oh! before I forget - apoya! My students use this made-up word by one of them often in class and when I asked them the meaning, they very seriously tell me that apoya is a word that is ‘used to describe the feeling of happiness that cannot be described’. They sure give me a lot of those moments every day. Hakunamtata, is what I think and smile!

 

Dear Syamala!,

You said it exactly!

Looking at the big picture we do loose moments. Us humans sometimes have a knack for missing the forest for the trees and vice versa...all at the wrong times! Thank you for being so encouraging with your feedback as always!

 

Dear V sir,

I don't know if I am determined to find opportunities to be happy, but I certainly have been practicing letting go - just as I think I have mastered some aspect of it, something else happens and it is back to square one. It is work in progress to what end I don't know, but all I can do is try.

You have said it all here and perfectly.

Observer - towards self and towards others and other things.....more often than not, the beauty of just being shines through!

Thank you sir for your encouraging feedback as always. Hope you had a wonderful thanksgiving!

 

Dear @maalti
Thank you for your feedback. You said that right that without those moments of happiness, our lives would be empty. While it may be hard to stay in a constant state of happiness, a state of joy can be achieved by focusing on those little moments!