“We don’t remember days. We remember moments.” – Cesare Pavese; All The Bright Places

We all want to be remembered. I think that’s the selfish wish of every person on the planet. We want our names to be shouted on rooftops. We want to be successful, legendary even. We want to be able to stare death in the face and know that our life was worth something. The truth is you don’t need fancy cars or diamond rings to achieve this goal. You don’t have to be the CEO of a major company or the quarterback of a championship team. All you need are moments.

Moments are not our greatest successes — the ones that we strive for in order to prove to the world and ourselves that we’re worth something. Moments are the little things — the small details of life that almost go unnoticed due to their insignificance in our quest for acceptance. Moments do not force themselves upon us. They patiently wait in our everyday lives, hoping that they will be noticed and cherished for what they are. Moments have power. They possess the ability to lift our spirits and humble our egos all at the same time. Moments are life-changing. They bring nuggets of wisdom and joy to anyone who takes the time to notice; however, no one ever does.

I recently attended a Women of Faith conference that bid farewell to the timeless speakers that have embodied this conference for twenty years. At the closing of the conference, each speaker was asked to share one last word of advice with the audience. Without hesitation, Luci Swindoll, best-selling Christian author and speaker, stepped up to the microphone and delivered a most profound yet simple statement. She instructed the audience to start living life. Swindoll insisted that there’s no time to spend waiting for life to find us; we must find life. Nicole Johnson, one of Swindoll’s colleagues, supported this plea by adding that we must collect moments like we collect photographs in scrapbooks: continuously and with purpose.

As I sat in the audience, stunned by the words I was hearing, a million questions began running through my mind. “Am I truly living life?” “Am I missing out on the important moments?” “How do I live for the moments in a world that focuses on success?” This third and final question struck me to the core. Suddenly, I realized that I wasn’t living for the moments. I wasn’t even living life. Like the rest of society, I was sitting around, waiting for something extraordinary to fall into my lap that would somehow make my life worthwhile. I was waiting on a fallacy that the delusions of society continually nurture. Life does not wait for people to snap out of their fantasies, and, meanwhile, moments pass by like ships in the night.

Moments appear when we least expect them. Like our favorite sweater, moments envelope and comfort us on our darkest days. They don’t always solve our problems, but they always bring us hope. They give us a spark we didn’t know we had. Moments aren’t measured by the standards of the world, but by the depth at which they touch our hearts. Moments are simple. They could be the company of a long lost friend, the smell of freshly fallen rain, or the satisfaction of a well-written book. Moments are snippets of life that tell you that you are worth something, despite everything the world says. They give us something to believe in.

There will always be someone who tells you that you’re wrong. They will tell you that life shouldn’t be wasted on petty ideas. They will tell you that dreaming, wishing, and hoping are for children. Don’t listen to them. Don’t let them steal your joy. Take your dreams, your hopes, and your wishes, and preserve them like flower pedals between pages in books. Treasure them. Never let them go. These are your moments. These are the things that matter in life. Take these things and run through life with reckless abandon. Do something crazy. Defy logic. Embrace every waking moment for what it truly is: a gift. One day, you’ll look back and realize that the little things were what made life so special.

I discovered the importance of moments during a time in my life when things were getting hazy. I was going through the motions with little attention to detail. Women of Faith opened my eyes to a world full of beauty and grace within my reach. Don’t wait for life to get easy before you start living. Don’t let life and all it has to offer slip through your fingers. Take the good days with the bad days, and be prepared to embrace the beautiful moments in-between.