How do you experience a moment? Why do some seem to stick with you, occasionally sneaking in when you least expect it, flashing again before your eyes and taking you to some other place – living again – just for a moment? Many times, I feel moments like that reflect a transient beauty – something you saw once, maybe at a glance, and thought was important enough to carry with you as you traveled through life. I like to think that these moments are important. I like to believe that they mean something. And I like to think you can make these memories anywhere. All you need is a little space for yourself and some time to explore internally and externally. A place without distraction, doubt, or worry. A moment where you can be you.

I think having time to do things just for yourself is valuable. It creates space for you to make something you can keep. Moments that you experience in your spaces are uniquely yours. You can attribute whatever you want to them in your own thoughts without diversion, distraction, or infringement. How you process the things you’ve witnessed in those spaces– these profound mercurial moments that only live on with you – speaks to who you are. In those moments, you must become the filter, for there is no one else. In those moments, how you see the world is defined in amazing clarity. And with that insight, you are able to reach down deep inside of yourself – maybe further than you knew you could go – to better define who you are.

Yet, finding the space to make these moments can be challenging – after all, you need to find a place for just yourself and your thoughts. Many times this involves being alone. And because of that, sometimes finding that place can be scary. But it can be exhilarating too. Often when you return from there – no matter how near or far it actually was – you will feel like you’ve gained something. Something you can’t quite put into words. Something you can’t quite ever seem to communicate to others because there isn’t a shared experience there. You have something that no one else can quite understand. In those quiet moments, you’ve made something just for yourself. When you leave, there is more to you.

Often the things you see in the spaces you make are momentary. A passing wisp of fog from the top of a mountain. A snowflake in a snowstorm. The shadow on the face of a rock. Yet, those moments make up your life and become a part of you. From such humble origins, deeply profound thoughts and feelings can rush forth. With those images, memories, and feelings that you have discovered, you can better navigate within yourself. When you are lost, feeling ungrounded, disgruntled, or unable to bear it, you can instantly snap back to somewhere completely different, somewhere all your own. Much like the experiences that created those memories, these feelings can often happen without expectation.

Having access to these deeply personal portals into the self is invaluable. They can help to sustain you when you need them most – not just in the most dire of times, but in those small moments of doubt, those moments of ennui, those moments of when you’re not quite sure why you are here. How you view the moments you’ve collected speaks to you and who you are. You don’t need to share them. You don’t have to explain them. You don’t need to alter or try to make sense of them. They just need acceptance. They are you at your most alive. At your most you. 

Moments of beauty make up our everyday lives. They can happen anytime, in any surrounding, whether you are actually alone or not. You don’t need to do a thing to make these moments meaningful. You just need to be there for them, to accept them as they come, and to grow as you learn to understand yourself through them. These moments are yours. They are for you. Love them. Love yourself. Travel on.