It Takes 30 Seconds
It’s Tuesday morning and it is way too early for me to be awake. But my brain has not heeded my silent request to go back to sleep. Instead, it has clicked on for the day and started to think thoughts. I know this is the end of my sleep so I quietly get up, head downstairs, and wonder how tired I will be later.
After my faithful coffee maker has delivered a hot beverage to me and I am sitting in a chair, I notice that the light changes near the stairwell. There is movement there, and a sleepy 11-year-old girl in her fuzzy robe enters the dim room with me. I put down my coffee, and she comes over to curl up in my lap. She can’t exactly curl up on my lap, though, because she’s only maybe six or eight inches shorter than I am now, so, she sort of squishes next to me in the recliner. This spot isn’t quite big enough for both of us to be comfortable, but I decide to savor this moment.
I remember reading that it takes just fractions of a second to imprint a negative memory, but it takes 30 or more seconds to do the same for a positive one. Our brains seem to treat negative experiences like Velcro but positive ones like Teflon. To convert our positive experiences into positive memories, we have to actively appreciate them for at least 30 seconds – long enough to pause and notice. And so, in this early Tuesday morning, I do.
I spend a few minutes marveling at her physical growth, who she is becoming, and the warmth of her person. She is cozy, relaxed and still sleepy. I soak this moment up because I want to remember it later. It is a gift to my current and future self.
In this moment, right now as you read this, what do you notice? How is your body, mind and spirit? What do you notice about your environment? It’s easy to note the things that are not as we wish them to be – a body with aches here and there, noise that is too loud or not loud enough – we pick up those things quickly. But what else is there? The body that still moves, even with its aches? The space that is yours even if it is not as tidy as desired?
And as you’re noticing things, where is God? Can you see of the Divine through the haze of your day? Can you notice how God weaves into every moment of your day? We know God to be a through-line in our lives, so surely the Lord is present in your day and mine, even as we sit here now.
All throughout the scriptures we can find several places that are similar to Deuteronomy 13:5b, “I will never leave you or forsake you” and I believe that to be true. The scriptures do not give us assurances of rescue from the heartaches of life or that God will pluck us up out of the circumstances we find ourselves in. But they do tell us over and over of how much God loves us and that God will be present with us, no matter what. When we sense that, let us pause and imprint it on our memory because it is such a beautiful gift.
My fuzzy-robed girl stirs and as quickly as the moment arrived, it is gone. The sun creeps in, our day has officially begun, and we are pulled into the morning with school and work. Things, tasks, and people call our names, and we move into the rhythm of the average day.
But I am reminded of the need to pause for half a minute, to notice, to soak in the moment, and create a memory with God. And I am reminded of how loved we are in each moment of the day. What a gift for us to receive.
