Upon a Sunny Day

Last week on Sports Center. Bryan Station High School, the high school both my kids graduated from was featured. A buzzer beater shot to win a basketball game. One of those highlight reel moments. They made the top ten.

Only a moment. Brevity. But it happened.

I went to the Red River Gorge on Sunday. I hiked a trail I’ve hiked a few times before. I found a tree and sat down, leaning against it. And I wrote in my journal. The best moments of the previous week. A couple had to do with my kids. A couple with other kids. Including watching one family on a local newscast video.

They are from the Congo. At some point, I’m not sure when, they were separated. The parents and some of the siblings ended up in Lexington. Two siblings ended up somewhere else. I don’t know the details. I know as a parent and a sister, I cannot fathom being separated by that kind of distance. For 12 years. Which is what they were. Separated for 12 years. But on Friday night they were reunited at our city’s airport. So obviously that made my highlight reel.

So did the girls who came to my house to bake cookies on Saturday. One of them from the family listed above. She wanted to bake cookies in honor of her family being reunited. So I obliged. And while the girls were here they looked up the chords to a song they like and I played it on the piano and they sang and it was, though not earth moving or the kind of thing I’ll never, ever forget….lovely and pure and beautiful. Because of the comfortability we feel together and the friendship they share and simply the joy of the moment.

Other moments.

I realize, so very much so today, that life is filled with moments. Beautiful, fragile moments. That we’ll never get a chance to relive. Yet they become memories. Tiny pieces of our highlight reel. And we must cherish them. Hold them. In our hearts. Because life is, for most of us long and sometimes challenging. But these moments of brevity are what make it worth it. Shared because we’re human. Because we feel.