Stop and Appreciate the Moment

Or it will pass by without you noticing, and so will your life

Michelle Okafor
3 min readMar 21, 2024
Image by author

Yesterday, I collected my son from school. He got in the car and smiled at me. I said: “Hello my darling, how was your day?” He said it was good and then he said: “I got 83% on my geography test.”

I was happy for him and applauded him for a job well done. After that, he started fiddling with the sound system and put on a song he liked. We proceeded to drive home and when we got home, each one of us proceeded to do whatever was next on our minds or what had to be done next.

The moment was gone.

Moments pass without us realising they were moments. I just thought to myself this morning that my older son will have 5 years left of school and then he’ll be off to university, most likely in another city or country. We won’t have these moments anymore. I won’t need to drive him anywhere again after that time because he will drive himself.

I have an older colleague at work who is nearing retirement and I know that in a year or two she will probably not be there anymore. I take for granted that I will be around in a year or two. And my husband, my two boys, my 3 brothers, and my sister.

We have learned from our 2020 experience that we cannot take anything for granted. We build in our minds a journey of the most likely outcome in a year or two or five. Where we’ll be, who we’ll be with, what we’ll be doing. We forget that nothing in the future is certain. The past is gone, too. Things will not always remain the way they’ve been. The only certain moment we have is this one.

Take some time today to reflect on this moment. Spend some time in this moment. It’s just after 07h00 in the morning here. I’ve been up since 06h00 this morning. I’ve had some coffee and I came to sit down to write this piece. It’s a public holiday today, so I don’t have to go into the office. It’s a school holiday as well.

At about 08h30 my son and I will drive to school where he will do some strength training in the gym and I will go for a walk. Later this afternoon he is invited to the movies with his friends.

That’s all for later. All I want to do right now is enjoy this moment. If the next moment arrives, I want to enjoy that moment too, but that’s for later. All I want to do right now is enjoy this moment.

Are you enjoying this moment too? I know you are reading this article, but you can stop right now and enjoy this moment. 😊

It sounds silly that someone has to remind you, but we forget. We are everywhere but in the moment. Let’s take our cue from each other and let’s make each moment count. Let’s start with this one.

If you found this story valuable and it made a difference to your day, I would love it if you bought me a coffee here: https://ko-fi.com/michelleokafor

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Michelle Okafor
Michelle Okafor

Written by Michelle Okafor

Writer of short, inspirational pieces. Make the most of your time here, for we pass this way only once. See the good in yourself and others.