“The Beauty of that moment”

Cassie gently bent her head backwards. It was as if her head was in the way of the wind and it was determined to blow away the obstruction. For a moment it felt like she had let go to the wind and it was carrying her away. The wind was gentle and it was right to call it a breeze by virtue of the fact that it was refreshing. Though it wasn’t the kind of wind that drew attention, it was strong enough to make its presence felt by anyone in its way. Besides, it brought with it an aura of relaxation and peace and a keen ear would hear its rhythm in the stillness of the night. She moved her head again, this time flipping her hair in a bid to get it away from her face and hold back from losing herself to the travels of the wind. She wanted to experience the greatness of the moment. She wanted her face to feel it enough to have her brain concur that it was a feeling worth a mention. She also wished to know what a moment in the face of a breeze and in the stillness of the night felt like. She longed to experience the beauty of that moment.

Cassie’s mat was neatly placed on the only patch of lush green grass around and she sat squarely on it, crossing her legs as if imitating a popular yoga posture. She maintained an upright posture and besides the constant hair flips and hand movements, there was not much else that changed about her posture. The patch of grass was on the highest point of the land there, and it felt like she was on an island, only this time it was sand that surrounded her, not water. She had chosen that spot for several reasons, the most outstanding of them being that it had a story to it. Being the highest point meant that it had somewhat achieved perfection in itself, thanks to its superlative state and consequently, it would add to the perfect nature of this moment. Most importantly, it overlooked the sea and every time she had lived through this moment in the confines of her head, it had always happened with she having crossed her legs and sitting on an outstanding point that overlooked the sea.

This moment; she had looked forward to it for far too long. It was one of those things that played through her brain every day before she slept. If she had one chance to do something before she died, this would be IT, and she wasn’t going to pass that chance for anything in the world. Many times she felt that maybe her expectations had been too high. She knew that if all didn’t turn out as perfectly as she expected, no one else was to blame but herself but she had dreamt about it all the same. It was what her life and more specifically, her writing career was leading to, and getting past this moment was paramount. It would give her the go ahead to dream about something else and break from the routine of same thoughts before bedtime.

From afar, it looked like the stars were really trying hard to make this moment a dream come true. The constellations were telling a story, or so it seemed. One shape looked like it held the story of two humans sitting by the doorstep, the head of one on the other’s shoulder. A keener glance at another group of stars made Cassie think about her story and the efforts that had brought her this far. She stared the more, as if trying to decode the message held by this constellation. She thought about horoscopes and a part of her felt that maybe she would get to know about her future if she searched long enough but she gave up even before she started. She didn’t base her fate on stars and she wasn’t going to start then but she acknowledged that the stars made the moment all the more special.

It wasn’t clear how long she had been there working towards this moment but Cassie was certain that even the time keeper had been affected by the power of the moment. It felt like time had stalled and she would later be able to describe a few minutes in a thousand words. The moment she was looking forward to gave meaning to the preceding seconds and gave relevance and remembrance to the date. It was time that even her memory would be proud to remember for a long time to come. This moment would mean many things. Whether it went as planned or not, this moment would signify the actualization of a dream. It would encourage her to hold onto dreams she held dear and to work towards leaving the legacy she desired. Most of all, it would mean perfection to her. If she thought about it later and felt that maybe a crescent moon would have been a better prop, she would still know that there was perfection in being able to live her dream. She had come to learn that maybe trying to weigh moments on a scale of perfection was what actually made them less perfect.

But really, what made this night different? Was it that the wind blew a little differently that night or that the grass looked greener in the moonlight? Did the stars twinkle more brightly, or better still, were they closer to the earth than was usual? What gave the stars futuristic value? Did time make an exception for Cassie, that it waited for her to experience the greatness of her moment? What made all those things worth a mention that night?

Yeah, you’re right. It was the moment. It was the moment that gave meaning to everything else. It wasn’t important to know if the stars told a story consistent to the moment if they would just be meaningless stars without the beauty of that moment.

Everything was leading to IT; the moment when she would write the first words of her first book. The wind’s rhythm did a good job as the background music and the reflection of the moon and stars on the surface of the sea provided the desired scenic view. The refreshing breeze worked just fine to keep the ideas flowing and it would definitely keep her awake till dawn if she so wished. Time was at her service that night and even dictionaries would lengthen their definition of a moment. The ‘indefinitely short time’ would then ‘have no limits or boundaries in time or space or extent or magnitude’. As pen graciously glided on paper, the gentle breeze breathed life into the words and that moment marked the birth of a new story. Even the flash of lightning seemed to agree. 🙂