Sunday Scribblings...when time stands still

My best friend and I have a habit of referring to the best moments in life as those “when time stands still”. Of course time does not technically stop; it never does. But in our lives, in those moments, the rest of the world fades away and the moment, the experience is all that matters. That is our definition of time standing still, and the moments are few and far between these days. I can look back a few years and tell you stories of moments when time stood still. A Caribbean beach, white sand, blue sky, our hands clasped together as we reveled in the last days of reckless and carefree youth…time definitely stood still that day. Nights when we laid in bed, snuggled together under plush covers, reading the beauty of poetry or talking until daylight…those were moments when time stood still. And even amidst the chaos of this week…there was a moment when time stood still. If I had the ability to stop time, I would go back in that moment and just stay there for a while.

It was Tuesday night, nothing special about the particular day or time. But it was not just a regular night for me, consumed by studying and reports and desperate attempts to fall asleep before the alarms rang their buzzing salutations. It was a special night, one of the very rare ones when my best friend was in town visiting her mom. My only opportunity to see her since July and an opportunity to once again feel the unbreakable bond of her love, the strength of her hugs, the understanding that needs no words. The last time I had seen her, she was not even five months pregnant, her belly only slightly swollen with the miracle inside. When I saw her Tuesday night, her beauty once again left me in awe. She has always been beautiful; she will always be beautiful. But her beauty left me breathless that night, the gentle curve of her belly expanding ever more with life. As we laid in her bed that night, I felt baby girl kick for the first time. With both our hands resting on her tummy, that precious baby girl reminded us that she was now a part of our time together. As I whispered words of love to her, as her tiny foot propelled against her mommy’s belly…time stood still. In that moment, sickness and stress faded away. In that moment, no one else existed…just my best friend, her miracle daughter, and me. In that moment…love was the only thing that existed in this world.

So if I had the power to stop time, I would go back to Tuesday night and stop time in that moment. To feel that love, to give that love, to know that intensity of love…that is the true essence of life. And to be reminded of that, to physically feel that reminder…that is what I would choose to hold on to forever.