Mindfulness | Gratitude

Gravitating to the Moments that Stop Time

Capturing comfort along the way

Twice a year we are reminded to adjust our time, fall back or spring forward. Each year I think it’s no big deal until a few days after the change. My body pushes back, dragging my mind with it, feeling unable to focus until a few days later, when it has finally accepted the change.

I used to wear a watch every day, starting in middle school. Mainly for fashion at first. Swatch watches, anyone?

Then my most cherished watch, a mickey mouse watch that made me smile as its arms served as the markers of time. Oh, how I wanted to jump into my watch and forget about the responsibilities of the high school years. If only I could tell myself back then that life just gets more hectic. Slow down and enjoy those years.

As an adult, I hate the feeling of a watch on my wrist. A constant, nagging pull towards, “Hey you, look at the time! You need to do this, and that and this and that. Go, go, go!” to be at least one step ahead of time.

As I get older, I gravitate towards the moments in life that stop time. To forget about what I need to be doing and should be doing.

You know the moments when you don’t realize how much time has passed? Those are the moments throughout my life that stick in my brain and dwell in my soul.

Playing dolls and make-believe with my friends, until a parent yelled, “it’s time to come home!”

Going to a bookstore, zoo, museum, anywhere with my mom on a Saturday, the one full day out of the week where she didn’t have to go to work the next day.

Talking for hours on the phone with teenage friends gossiping about our crushes until you heard, “Get off the phone, I need to use it!”

Talking on the phone for hours with my mom when I first moved away from home, until I got the phone bill, realizing that is my responsibility.

Falling in love and living in the couple bubble where nothing else matters until it does.

Holding my babies, watching them feed, reading to them, sitting on the floor playing, and watching for those firsts; first crawl, first steps, first words until they walk away and say, “No mommy, I don’t need you!”

Going for a walk anywhere with my teenage sons who now are taller than me, talking about school, friends until we get back home where they shift focus back to their world found in their phones.

Playing board games as a family with no phones allowed (for the adults or kids), laughing, arguing about the game rules, forgetting about everything going on in the world outside our four walls.

Reading a book that I can’t put down until my alarm goes off and realize I read most of the night. “Just one more chapter.”

Writing a book with no distractions, creating a world filled with the characters that live in my head until an alarm goes off on my phone, “Oh no I need to go pick up my kids” pulling me back to my world that runs on time. “Hold on, I’ll be back,” I say to my characters.

It is in these moments when time stops and memories are created, never to be erased or lost in some cloud, that I am most grateful.

It is here I hunt for comfort, how I remove the worry from my body. These are the moments that don’t need a photo or to be shared on social media to make them meaningful.

“To be sensual, I think, is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present in all that one does, from the effort of loving to the breaking of bread.” ― James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

What are the moments in your life that time stops? How has it changed throughout your life?

— Ellie

This article is in response to my Finding Comfort prompt

and my gratitude project in November

Written by Ellie Jacobson, @2021 all rights reserved.

I’m a freelance writer and editor from Minnesota, writing my first novel, a psychological suspense novel. Are you a writer? Check out Sparks, my newsletter filled with writing prompts to spark your creativity.

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