Don’t Blink, or You’ll Miss It
Recently, I saw a hummingbird for the first time. It flew away when it noticed me through the window so that I couldn’t get a photo of it. It was great luck. All I did was look out the window and the rare bird was there for me. I felt fortunate. I felt somehow gifted. The gratitude practice I have been building for years doesn’t allow such experiences to pass by my consciousness without appreciation, gratitude, and perspective.
However, the experience was also educational. It illuminated an aspect of my life (everyone’s life) that’s worth exploring. In my hummingbird experience, I did not gain an interesting photo but I did gain a concern and a topic to discuss.
The concern is that, in readying my phone to capture the photo, I missed about half of the time I had to enjoy ACTUALLY looking at the hummingbird. When it comes to a rare experience, that means a lot. By wasting time trying to document (really postpone) the enjoyment of the occurrence, I lost a lot of it. A two-second distraction is a large portion of a four-second experience. I had flushed half of the experience down the drain.
Why did I do that? Why did I spend some of a rare moment trying to take a picture of the moment? I knew that the photo wouldn’t have been clear, through a window with unplanned lighting of a creature known to be tiny and whose wings move so fast you literally can’t even see them. At that moment, I also knew that professional versions of nature photography are far, far superior to anything an amateur like me could produce with a cell phone and absolutely no experience in photographing animals.
Why do I think I did it? The habit of trying to save enjoyment/life for later. But, if I wasn’t going to enjoy the bird then, when was I planning to enjoy it? When sipping wine on the porch a week later? Absurd. By then, there would have been a dozen other savory moments in my consciousness. But even this is not ideal because of Mindfulness. Shouldn’t I be enjoying that future moment IN that future moment?
This topic isn’t for wildlife alone. Fast experiences aren’t reserved for fast animals, like hummingbirds. Many of life’s greatest moments are quick: your child’s first words, your child’s first steps, a really great catch in a baseball game, the way a loved one looks in that perfect second of sunlight, getting a glimpse of Bigfoot - all of these events can last mere seconds. My story is also your story.
One of the most wasteful examples of saving can be seen at a big-scale music concert or sporting event. Mega-venue performances, especially professional sports, are always canvassed with countless high-definition cameras. There are always digital versions available to watch during the actual performance, as with sports, or afterward and forever, as in a concert recording. The people who record and produce that material are the best in the world. Think about it. The people who produce the recordings of world-class events are as good at that job as you are at your most accomplished skill. That’s right. When we watch a play in the Super Bowl, that footage was produced by the most skilled people imaginable for that task. And yet, all over these events, you will see people missing the actual experience in order to film it with their cell phones. It’s tragic. What makes it worse is that some of these events are the pinnacle of entertainment for some. Some people need to save their money for weeks or months in order to purchase their entry to the show. By buying the ticket, some people are emptying their savings. Some people are using their last vacation days from work. In regards to sports, the fan in attendance might have been waiting 20, 30, or 40 years for their team to get to that big game. And to think of all that is missed by attempting to put enjoyment in a bottle to be savored later. It’s almost criminal.
There’s no point in saving a moment for later because, you’re not supposed to be living in the past and, if you are enjoying THIS magical moment in the future, that means that you will not be acting mindfully in that future moment. Did I lose you around any of those bends?
Let me be blunt before I explain myself further: Don’t save anything for later.
It’s as simple as that.
Any instinct we have to capture a moment of pleasure for later is fundamentally maladaptive. It goes against everything I blog about.
There are no better moments and lesser moments. I think that part of the reason that I tried to save that moment’s enjoyment for another time is that I didn’t value the time with the hummingbird as a time in my day for enjoyment or, at least, maximum enjoyment. I think there is a sense in all of us to have more spartan, mundane periods in our week and off-setting adventurous, fun, and special periods of time. Let’s agree to stop doing that. Life is short. Let’s not discount any time period. There is no reason why Tuesday morning at 10:12 is not as significant as Saturday night at 7:45. By subjugating Tuesdays at 10:12 am to a lower, “no fun, no enjoyment, nothing special” category, we are throwing every Tuesday morning at 10:12 am of our lives into the trash or, at least, out of the window.
If you think about it, I really messed up, on a life scale. I could have blown half of the only time I would ever have to see a hummingbird in person, for my whole life. That’s significant. If there was a big chart of life events and goals, the spot on my chart reserved for “Hummingbird Viewing” would be graded as subpar, satisfactory, at best. But, this is actually a good thing because, as much as I like nature and beautiful things, it was worth me botching my hummingbird experience in order to inspire this article. Hopefully, the message I am sending can prevent at least a few people from missing a child’s first steps or a child’s steps to receive a diploma because they were trying to save it for later. Don’t worry about not having video footage to show others, you can get a copy from someone who hasn’t read this article.
Burak Uzun is an award-winning writer and a Certified Meditation Teacher. He has received thousands of hours of training and hands-on experience in guiding individuals with social and emotional challenges.
Burak Uzun also co-wrote a feature film called Team Marco, which was featured in over fifty film festivals around the globe and was distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films.
Please feel free to reach out to Burak here.
Learn more about SOCA LLC and Burak’s classes here.