When does a moment become a MOMENT?  What causes the mind or spirit to rise to the occasion, and say or do something that makes the moment an event, something grander than the ordinary?  I can think of a few times in my life when this has happened, and I’m thankful that I realized it was happening, and I experienced and appreciated that it had happened.

 

When Johnny and I were in our 30’s, and had actually reached the time in our life when we had some money, we made some purchases that exceeded what I had always thought of as “financially appropriate” for what we had bought.  We became interested in art, and began purchasing some original paintings.  We fell in love with an oil painting of yellow daisies in a field, and paid $2200 for it.  Whoa!!  My financial sensibilities were stunned, but we could afford it.  Other paintings followed, most cost less, but a couple, more.   We loved the artwork we purchased, and were enriched by it.  But I never talked about how much we paid for them.

Well, we took a trip to California a few years later, and on this trip discovered an artist whose work we were captivated by.  But his paintings were in the $6000 area, a bit staggering for me.  One painting we really loved, and the gallery was willing to ship it to us so we could see it in our house.  I even looked into getting a loan for it!   

After we returned to Baton Rouge, we had dinner at my parents', with my sister Jill and her two kids, Garrett and Collette, ages 12 and 7.   PaPaw, my mother’s father, was also there.  As we sat around the table eating supper, Johnny and I shared some of our trip stories.  The conversation came around to the painting, and after describing it a bit, I even mentioned the price.  And I decided to go out on a limb.  I said, “I know most people don’t understand how we can spend that much money on a painting….,” and just sort of trailed off. 

After a moment, my mother said, “I admit, I don’t,” followed by Papaw, Jill, until the nays were all around me.  Then everybody was quiet.   Inwardly I felt the limb breaking, and I was going to crash into I knew not what, when, from the end of the table, Collette looked up from her macaroni and cheese and said “I could see it.”

The rest of the family laughed, I guess, because she was only 7 years old, but I knew, she could see it.  And I knew that I had been given a blessing in that response.  We ended up not buying that painting, because $6,000 was a crazy amount for us, but I loved that moment at dinner.  I doubt anyone else there remembers it, but I remember it.