By Ethan Maurice | February 14, 2017
Maybe once a month, or even less frequently, I have these moments. Moments that last anywhere from five minutes to an hour. They're sublime moments—moments of elation, verging on ecstasy. Moments when I find myself utterly moved by my surroundings or by an experience.
I had one of these moments today.
Rain was falling all day and after spending one too many hours inside, I needed to escape. I grabbed headphones, pulled my rain coat on, and stepped out into the cool, heavy air of late afternoon. Grey clouds hung overhead and as the Interstellar Soundtrack eased into my ears, I walked west out of a small New Zealand town into farmland and pastures.
Eyes wide as I walked, I gazed across the soaked green growth of the land. The low ceiling of the sky was heavy, tumbling clouds. Soft light played over a weightless mist settling on my rain coat and everything around me. It was endlessly beautiful. In that moment, I didn't want a single thing in the world but to just look, walk, and feel.
I was in it.
I recognize these sublime moments while they're happening and know how fragile they are. You wish you could grasp and hold onto them forever, but they're impossible to capture. Try to catch them and, like air in the palm of your hand, they effortlessly escape. Such moments can possess you, but you can never possess them.
Instead of trying to take a souvenir or sample for further investigation, I just swim in it. I dive deeper. I focus on it. I feel it more and relish as it unfolds.
I'm awestruck. But like the clouds rolling by overhead, every moment that comes will go. And after their passing, we cannot recreate those circumstances and live the same experience. I've tried and found that in chasing past ecstasy, I compare present to past and wish it more like it. I just have to wait to stumble into another place or experience that once again submerges me in the sublime.
And this is okay, because these fragile, sublime moments are one perfect ride—pure quality.
And though such moments may be rare, quality has no concern for quantity.
