Space Between Ordinary Days

We often expect the most beautiful things in life to happen during grandiose events. When we were children, we could go days anticipating the big day, counting how many more sleeps we need to do in order to arrive there.

Having one big day to look forward to is a beautiful thing. It tells us that life is made of things that are designed to keep us hopeful and make us anticipate the beauty of new experiences and all of its wonders.

But sometimes, beauty does not announce itself. It can live in the tiny rhythms of the everyday life, in the moments of preparation, during which almost all of it can go unnoticed, invisible to the anticipating heart.

I remember so many days, which in hindsight, held memories that were far more meaningful than the day I spent anticipating. It is those moments that teach me that sometimes, the things we held most dear are those we often take for granted, and can only learn in hindsight how important they were to us.

It didn’t need to teach me through loss, but reflecting back on those hard days I spent saving just for a big event, taught me skills that I still apply to myself regardless of whether there is a big event coming or not. Those nights I spent studying in my room, and my mother who brought me food to support me through the night are days and moments I long to happen again now that I have graduated.

Looking back, I realized they all had common things that made them more meaningful to me than I realize: they were capsules of moments that taught me something. The skills, the love, the amount of effort invested in all those things have become more important to me in hindsight than those big moments I spent days, weeks, and months preparing for.

Not that I am not happy when the most anticipated event has come, I just think that those big moments are more meaningful precisely because of the preparation, those tiny invisible moments spent just for the significance of it all.

Now that I have grown, I try my best to take pleasure in it all. I still do my best to prepare for the big ones, but I also do my best to appreciate the before, just to make sure that I don’t regret living or missing any moments which I may deem insignificant for now, and then realize later on, it is those that I took for granted that held the most importance to me.