There are times when something rocks your world, and it makes you see life in a new light. It may be for a second; it may be for a day; or it may be for the rest of your life. It doesn’t have to be a paralyzing moment, either. It doesn’t have to be when someone passes or a loved one is diagnosed with a terminal illness. Those are moments we expect to change us forever. They usually do.
I’m calling attention to the smaller moments. The ones that are fleeting but offer so much when we just slow down and open ourselves up. It might be when you see a child learn how to ride a bike or when a stranger gives you a genuine compliment. Those are the times when you stop for a second and realize that you’re only here for a brief moment, and the wonders of the world aren’t just rooted in the larger-than-life moments but also in the ones that cause your lips to gently curl upward.
I will never forget when I was learning how to drive. I was probably fifteen or sixteen years old, and I had to take driving lessons before taking my license test. One of the last lessons I had was with an instructor, who was probably thirty or so years old, and I was struggling with fully turning the wheel while using both of my hands (this is really simple and straightforward, but for some reason I could not figure it out).
The entire lesson consisted of me taking turns and trying to nail down the hand movements. I’m not sure why I couldn’t figure it out— I was probably really in my head about it. Thankfully, my instructor was very patient and reassuring the entire time. I never felt like he rushed me, even though I knew that watching me fail time and time again at something super easy was probably frustrating. He never showed it. He just kept saying, “you’ll get it, don’t worry.”
At the very end of the lesson, with only minutes left, I figured out how to make a full turn using both of my hands. I remember the genuine, pure smile on his face and excitement in his voice when I finally succeeded. It was like he had just watched his child walk for the first time. He looked at me and said, “I always knew you could do it.”
For some reason that memory is engrained into me. It wasn’t like I solved an impossible problem or ran a marathon and came in first place. I completed a very basic, necessary driving maneuver, but my instructor didn’t seem to care how small it seemed. It was the faith he had in me from the beginning, the way his face lit up, and the congratulatory comments he made that stuck with me.
Right before stepping out of the car at the end of my session, my instructor said to me, “I have no doubt that you’ll pass your license test. You shouldn’t have any, either.”
This little moment of mine made me look at life very differently. I don’t think the reason I look at life differently is because I finally succeeded. I think it’s because this person, a man I had never met, was so quick to partake in someone else’s happiness. It didn’t need to be his. Success and happiness didn’t even need to exist yet. Just the opportunity for it to exist was enough for this man to act like it was already so abundant. Like I had already succeeded and passed the test before I had even taken it.
I thought to myself, “That— that— is true happiness.”
Maybe it’s not your own, maybe it’s not your best friends, and maybe it doesn’t even belong to anyone you know. Maybe all you need is the opportunity for happiness to be present, and if you really think about it, that can be all the time. Because if it’s not your opportunity, maybe it’s your best friends. If it’s not your best friend’s opportunity, maybe it’s a strangers. Maybe that is enough to just choose it— to know that someone, somewhere is happy, and if you want that, partake in it.
I urge you to pay attention to the little moments. If you’re not aware enough, they will pass you by in an instant, but if you are aware, they will remind you of your humanness.
None of us have any clue when our last days will be. When you truly understand that your time here is finite, you learn to open up to how precious the small moments are. So, instead of searching for happiness in the times you don’t feel it for yourself, maybe just remember that the opportunity is present at any moment. Someone, somewhere is smiling, and that’s enough of a reason for you to smile, too.
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