My phone vibrated as I walked into the Salt Lake City airport to catch a connecting flight home. The name on the phone screen
could only mean one thing: bad news. The details would come in the conversation to follow, but I had certain knowledge that in some way everything would be different from now on as soon as I saw that particular name on the screen.
I think that our lives are punctuated randomly, without warning, with these instances: good or bad, happy or sad, encompassing the entire spectrum of human emotion. Our personal blink moments, a la Malcolm Gladwell
The blink moment described above was the news that my father had had a stroke. His life, and our relationship would be forever changed.
Other blink moments for me have been:
-that moment in September when the feel of the air instantly announces autumn.
-looking down at both Coert and Emily as I delivered them
-the instant I smell the perfume my grandmother wore
-the first 2 notes of the sound track of 'Out of Africa'
These are all emotional 2 x 4's, and don't happen often. I often feel that life is passing by in the 'blink of an eye'. Perhaps with attention and mindfulness more of life can become a personal blink.