Maybe These Are the Moments
Over the weekend, there was a substantial loss for sports fans, casual sports fans, and people who know nothing about sports to experience an emotion and to provide a reaction to the passing of Kobe Bryant. This news sent me down a dizzying slide of observations and deep reflections. I should preface this with the following. I do not know anything about the person or his abilities. I did not follow Kobe's career, nor did I know anything about him other than he played Professional Basketball. I knew of him when he and Lakers teammate Shaquille O'Neal (were having their on-court issues in 96.
Side note: you might be amazed at hearing this information. I am not a super uber fan of sporting spectacles but I have a soft heart for people and teams I followed during my super-duper fan days. The only reason I know this was because I followed Shaq from college to the NBA for a couple of years. When he signed with the Lakers, I peeked a few times at some games, but I had, for the most part, checked out of professional sports by 94.
I say all this to get to my point, hopefully. During these times, social media, the news, and every conversation is dominated by the news as people mourn in their own ways. My reaction wasn't that we lost an influential sports figure, but that a family is missing vital members of their nucleus. Gone are the smiling faces that were greeted when they came into a room or when dinner was served. Shoulders have disappeared that were used to cry on. Arms that once outreached to hug you become a memory. Missing are the words that were given to encourage and other words that hurt. Their energy, their vibration went away.
Although sad and tragic for any human to deal with, it served as a reminder to myself that life can change in an instant. Laughing and joking can become silence and unfortunately, life has a cruel way sometimes of telling us that it's too short and we are reminded of our mortality. I like to imagine that if you listen closely, life whispers in our ears that we should live it to our absolute fullest.
Generally speaking, we tend to get caught up in our day to daily life dealing with what's in front of us. Our work requirements, our family requirements, or whatever is happening at this moment. This week, we are going to be busy but I would encourage you to slow down and acknowledge our present moments together. Seeing this moment gives us the notion of perspective, which hopefully allows us to see the larger picture. When we do get the chance to see the bigger picture, we have the opportunity to realize what is important and what is not. What we can we let go of and what we can't. Side note: cute animal pictures are always a win It is a beautiful day to be alive, don't ever take that for granted.