I was sitting at the kitchen table talking to my best friend with my chin resting on top of my hands which were folded and resting on a cup. The cup held Coke which I rarely drink. It was one of those thoughtful conversations and there was no hurry. We were enjoying the time together which we never seem to have enough of.
“Well, I show my emotions as I have them,” I confessed.
“No?” came the mocking reply.
And it is true that my emotions are never held in check. I allow them to live as they come. Hugs erupt abruptly and I’ll sling my arms around a neck in the second that it demands to be let out. Kisses happen easily. Words flow as they are needed. I am never guarded.
I think that life is better if it’s lived this way. Too often we mean to hug someone or let them know that they’re loved and we never get around to it. Then the moment is gone and it becomes something that we meant to do but didn’t.
This can often become a pattern. And that is how friends are lost or how love dies. We mean to do the things necessary to care for them but somehow we don’t get around to it. Other things seem to be more important. Or we become self-absorbed with something that we deem to be more important. Many times we start to care more about ourselves more than others. The love in our lives is then slowly strangled as though we tie panty hose around our necks and suspend ourselves from the ceiling.
Did I ever take you in my arms, look you in the eye and tell you that I do?
Did I ever open up my heart and let you look inside?
If I never did it, I was only waiting for a better moment that didn’t come.
There could never be a better moment than this one. This one.
So sings Paul McCartney in one of my favorite songs. Years ago I was in a relationship that ended up dying and most of the reason was because everything was taken for granted. Love became a routine and an expectation. Conversations drifted to the most superficial of communications. We stopped helping one another to grow as individuals.
I remember listening to this song and I resolved to never take things for granted again. That if a moment to tell someone I love them presents itself then I’m grabbing it.
If someone obviously needs a hug then I’ll give them one regardless of where we happen to be standing.
If they need an honest and open immediate answer then why should I wait?
Over time, this is increasingly how I’ve chosen to live my life. It startles a lot people because they are guarded with their feelings or emotions, choosing to hold them in check for fear of being rejected or hurt. I don’t think that this allows us to live life to its fullest which is the way that God intends us to live it. So by not taking advantage of the opportunities to express love we reject the life that God gave us.
And you never know how many moments you’re going to get anyway. Especially how many you’re going to have with the people you care about the most! So it’s best to take advantage of them as they come.
Because there is no better moment … than this one.
