He squeezes his nose up, scrunching into a monkey face, tic-tac teeth shining through his wide dimpled smile.  As he “ummmms” and “awwws” showing his infatuation for vanilla flavored puffs, he looks at me, adoringly.  His eyelashes brush the top of his lids while his lips purse looking at me, pausing…waiting for my reaction.  He chuckles to himself banging his baby man mitts on the high chair and then clapping as if to say yes, Mom, I love you. He pulls apart the pieces of the puff, one by one, laughing, chuckling in his raspy giggle. He looks at me, and signs for more, I watch him in amazement.  He finds everything funny, so I hand him the empty open container of puffs. He is overjoyed and giggles as he talks to the inside of it creating an echo that makes him go searching, where did that come from….he is beaming.  I found myself, taking in this seemingly insignificant moment.

Yet today, is another sad day… again for our nation.   Again.  I am so sick of it.  I know you are too.  I don’t feel like talking about it at the bus stop, or at the the dinner table. Though, to not mention it would be a misuse of my time and space here. I know that bike path in Tribeca all too well, I can see it in my head.  Over ten years of visiting a dear friend countless times, who lived a block away.  It becomes real when we can actually visualize things.  It becomes less of a news story and more concrete.  The hard fact is, this is the world we live in, but it does not mean we need to sit back and accept it.  I did not create this forum to give evil room nor breath.  I created my blog, as a shield.  My two loves of my life taught me so much, to look at life filled with beauty and my favorite word of all time, hope.  Except there is a major dilemma with this way of life….our world doesn’t want us to see the beauty in a day, our world doesn’t want us to take in the simple things like going to the movies, without looking for the exit doors.

So this is what I say, I say that you and I need to work harder at making more space in our day for for these seemingly insignificant moments….these simple seconds in our day that will help insulate us from the frozen waters we face in this life filled with fear.  Fuck fear.  Sure we can ignore the mess, not turn the news on sure.  But not acknowledging it also comes with it own set of internalization.  I get it, trust me.

So what can be done today to combat what happened yesterday?

How about if we were to truly pause, take a beat in our rushed lives… and JUST BE in one of those seemingly insignificant moments.

Maybe, just maybe….we would just catch a glimpse of something so small and yet so extraordinary that will allow us to man up against the forces of fear.

You may already be doing this, or working on it, or thinking about it today.  We need to hear about your seemingly, insignificant extraordinary moments today? We really do….

Because in this world, we can stand up to fear together.

Thanks to my little dude and amazing sweet girl for gifting me with these extraordinary seemingly insignificant moments.  You make it easier to catch them.