In Praise of Quiet Moments 贊美安靜的時刻

Jessica Dang 楊舟

We tend to measure life by our memories. The most joyful or devastating1， exciting or stressful， interesting or hard fight for milestones from one to the next， stand out the most in our minds.

These are the things we go out of our way to do， to plan for， to work for， to pay for. Advertising encourages us to fit as many “experiences” as we can cram into our lives. When the big moment arrives， we take photos on our smartphones， upload to social media， even journal or tell our friends and children about it.

We remember these events for years， but everything else in between is forgotten.

What did you do on a typical Tuesday afternoon？ Or a quiet Thursday evening？ Or a routine Sunday morning？ It may seem unimportant， but what if the ordinary in-between moments are just as powerful as the extraordinary ones？

Who knew that a regular day sitting on the sofa with my grandmother，? watching TV while sharing some fruit would be the last time I saw her alive？ Nothing lasts forever， not even the mundane2. Everything will pass， whether you notice it or not.

Indeed， it is a practice to be as grateful for the journey as the destination. Its not easy to give our limited attention to the unremarkable moments， but they probably make up about 90% of our daily lives. If we live a good life with multiple journeys to multiple destinations， what kind of fulfillment would we have if we only appreciated 10% of it？

So maybe in a months time I wont remember this moment—sipping3 my coffee as I write this， the smell of it waking me up to the sound of the city going by outside my window on this sunny July morning—but I can enjoy it right now， thoroughly and gratefully， for everything its worth.

我

們往往用記憶來衡量生活。最快樂或最震驚的、最激動或最緊張的、最有趣或最艱苦的，從一個到下一個里程碑的奮斗，在我們腦海中最為突出。

這些是我們不遺余力地去做、去計劃、去效力、去付出的事情。廣告鼓勵我們去嘗試用盡可能多的“體驗”填滿生活。當重要的時刻到來時，我們用智能手機拍照，上傳到社交媒體甚至日志，或者告訴我們的朋友和孩子。

這些事情我們能記住很多年，但是在這些事情間隙里的其他事情都被遺忘了。

你在一個典型的星期二下午做了些什么呢？或者是在一個安靜的星期四的晚上呢？又或者是在一個常規的星期日早晨呢？這似乎不重要，但是如果這些平凡的間隙和非凡時刻有一樣大的影響力呢？

誰會知道在普通的一天和祖母一起坐在沙發上，一邊看電視一邊分享水果，是我在她生前最后一次看到她？沒有什么是永恒，甚至平凡的。不管你是否注意到，一切都會過去。

事實上，對旅途和目的地同樣心存感激是一種習慣。我們很難將有限的注意力投向那些無足輕重的時刻，但是它們可能占據了我們日常生活的百分之九十。如果我們的日子過得很好，可以多次旅行去多個目的地，如果我們只欣賞其中的百分之十，我們會得到什么樣的滿足感呢？

因此，也許在一個月的時間里，我不會記得這個時刻——這個陽光明媚的七月早晨，我寫這篇文章時，正啜飲著咖啡，咖啡的香味使我意識到窗外城市的聲音——但是我現在可以盡情地、滿懷感激地享受這一切，一切都是值得的。