Magic Moments

What consitutes a magic moment in your life? Is it when you first fall in love? Is it the  awesome 4am sunrise over Mount Haleakela in Maui? The moment you see your child take a first step. Yes it is all of these of course and many more. But I have some thoughts on this and I am willing to share if you care to travel down this road with me a while. I really do believe it is possible to have a magic moment every single day and in fact several times a day if one focusses some energy there.

My siblings and I along with two other Schacters by marriage( 6 of us in all) just returned this week from spreading my father's ashes off the Peak to Peak Gondola at Whistler. At 1400 ft up we witnessed the last physical reminder of his being blown out the tiniest opening of our Gondola and exploding with a rush into the cool mountain air. I cannot describe the emotion but let's just say it was "magic." I watched  with love and exilaration as this plume of whitish gray ash collided with the intense air currents at the highest point between these two incredible mountains and marveled at the man that was now leaving us for good though he is in all of our thoughts every single day. I felt a sudden peacefulness and joy for what we all had and how he brought us to this very moment to be together as a family. We skied together all our lives and if we had nothing else in common with one another it was he who taught us all to love and revere these mountains. We shared many magic moments in the pursuit of that perfect set of tracks in powdery white heaven. In fact he was so passionate about skiing with us he proclaimed to an ex boyfreind of mine several months before he died that his proudest accomplishment in life was that he had "Six Schacters skiing!"

But it was his love and total devotion to his family and most especially his wife and my mother that a  true indication of his capacity to love. This passion for family  and having us all ski together is probably the reason we are all on the West coast in the first place. Dad seized a moment back in 1970 and moved us all  from Montreal to live closer to the Rocky mountains. So I don't know if it has to take a milestone jolt like a death or some other serious knock to the noggin to put this " Magic Moment " exercise into high gear,  but perhaps becoming  aware that life is a finite thing does brings some urgency to find more of these moments and not merely to find them but to attract many more.

 I went to a friends 70th bithday (  yes I am that old now that I have friend turning 70!) and he was talking about how precious the moments were becoming and just how much freinds mattered to him now and in truth mattered more than just about everything  except for family perhaps. He looks amazing, fit healthy and full of life as does his wife who is in her mid 60's. If only when we were young with all that youthful passion and energy to communicate this idea to the world! But it seems to be a hard earned secret amongt those of us hitting middle age. Let's face it,most of the under 20  ipod junkies are too busy texting each other to pay any attention to what some old farts have to share about seizing and savoring moments. But  what a shame I think because again I begin to ponder... if only my 14 year old niece knew what we know now she might not stress so much about her morning hairdo as she readies herself for a grueling day of academic torture ( more or less how she describes highschool). I look back at my awkward and ugly years photos that reveal to me I was insane to worry! I was seriously gorgeous then! So I must have been on some other planet because now all I see in those photos is a beautiful, innocent being full of hopes and dreams .

Magic moment are like wine. You can easily miss them just like gulping down a plate of goumet delicacies or a fine wine. We need to develop more sensitive tastebuds for this thing called life. It calls for a holiday or something special in the way of celebration I am sure. I mean we have holidays for remembering Christ's good deeds and for thanking the earth for our bountiful harvest, and for the days we are born, christened, barmitzvahed, graduated, retired and then finally expired. Why not a weekly or even god forbid a celebration for every time we conquor a fear, or speak our truth and it is heard or maybe even just for waking up early and catching a sunrise. Little celebrations each day will mark these magic moments. We are all missing so much. It takes time and maturity to come to these conclusions I guess and perhaps there is no other way. However in the meanwhile I am going to toast this magic moment right now. I got my second blog done and now I am going to celebrate by having an early breakfast out with my best gal pal so there!