Something is always happening

From Jack Gilbert – Collected Poems

“We think of lifetimes as mostly the exceptional and sorrows.  Marriage we remember as the children, vacations, and emergencies.  The uncommon parts.  But the best is often when nothing is happening.  The way a mother picks up the child almost without noticing and carries her across Waller Street while talking with the other woman.  What if she could keep all of that?   Our lives happen between the memorable.”

Indeed.  It becomes easy to focus on the memorable, to become so focused on the milestones that the moments get lost.  Jesus was born in a manger and died on a cross, but what about that interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well – a thirsty man wanting a drink of water.  There was that 25^th wedding anniversary, but what about last night, sitting quietly on the front porch swing, thinking that life has been/is good!

Indeed, “our lives happen between the memorable” and “the best is often when nothing is happening.”  Something is always happening.