An Open Letter to the Moment
February 27, 2012 
Dear Moment,
Here is the bitch of a thing I'm noticing about you. I go around diligently trying to live in you, and you calcify around me - or at least my imagination. I get into the habit of thinking that my circumstance is the Truth.
If I'm in discomfort, in pain, in love, in bliss, whatever, I could be forgiven for misinterpreting that as reality, right? If you're potty training a toddler it would be easy to mistake the utter lack of evidence that the process will ever end as proof that it will not. And then one day it does. Or so they tell me.
The thing of it is, even when I'm consciously, actively courting change, when I'm putting on perfume and lip gloss and trying to get it to notice me, I still get caught in the trap of thinking that nothing is moving at all. Everything is as it is, and as it shall be.
Everything is as it is, and as it shall be.
Everything is as it is, and as it shall be.
Even I know that those words, strung together on a page in that order, don't begin to make any sort of logical sense. But Moment, you slipped a pair of blinders over my eyes and eased the bit into my mouth and then I was trotting along in a rhythm and I forgot there was anything else out there. You are the enemy of Perspective. You are the trees and I can't even tell I'm standing in the middle of a fucking forest and now I'm getting so agitated that I'm mixing metaphors, dammit.
And then a lightning bolt comes across a phone line and illuminates the truth - that everything can change in an instant. That infinite possibilities are gestating just below the surface all the time. And suddenly that which I have been wondering about, or dreading, or avoiding, or praying for, or that which I never saw coming even for an instant, is here. Suddenly what was not real is real. What seemed true is no longer true.
Moment, I can't decide if I'm noticing this for the first time (and should therefore beat myself up for taking 38 years to catch on) or if I just have to remember to warn myself about you every now and then. Either way, you should know that I'm on to you. You're not the Truth. You're just the moment. There are a million more where you came from, and your time is almost up.
Sincerely,
Corinna
P.S. You know I hate conflict, so I hope we can still be friends.
Reader Comments (8)
You are truly gifted.
Doesn't get any more real or honest than this. And - now ..it's passed. This moment in which I read this..and then that moment in which I responded. Love this little meditation to this 'moment'!
Genius. These blogs are going to make an amazing book.
Freaking love this.
I like Jeff's idea. How badass would this be as a series in a book? Especially a chapter called "Correspondences" with all sorts of open letters.
P.S. Glad it's not just me getting caught in the moment.
If Moment responds, I hope you'll print it. Would be interested to know what it has to say for itself.
Amazing processing on this image. At first, I saw only the vertical patterns and then it evolved into icicles and then finally into the background trees. The visual illusion was very cool.
Dear Corinna,
Thank you for your recent communication. I'm vividly interested in your blinder-and-bridle imagery, but this moment can't really take the credit. I suggest you take your complaint back to Customer Service and request the free Presence upgrade. The new user interface is seems to take some practice to get the hang of, but I hear it (eventually) makes the as-is problem a bit more manageable.
I hope you'll keep me posted.
Your friend evermore,
Now
I don't know whether to laugh or digest these words...