Last week as I stood in my kitchen, rinsing and cutting the green topper leaves off each berry within a basket of large organic red strawberries, my mind flashed to a strawberry field in the summer heat, with clusters of people picking each strawberry that I was, at that moment, holding between my fingers. During that particular second, and within the joy I was feeling in anticipation of biting into those juicy delights, I paused to say a silent “Thank You”, to each person who had picked those berries…. unknown human beings, working in less than ideal conditions, to deliver the very best basket of fruit to my table. This is an example of an “overlooked moment” repeated over and over too often throughout our days.

On reflection, it seems we take such moments for granted… and we forget most of each day as our lives fly by. Not only do we have thousands of random overlooked moments in life, our purposeful, deliberate, memorable moments are also often overlooked until we flip through our photos, snapped throughout life.

On this day, I will sit in a quiet place, and recall special moments during the past week, that stirred my soul with joy, gratitude, and appreciation…overlooked moments, random acts/events, seemingly with little impact, yet collectively the composition of a lifetime of value to the human experience. Some special moments have included:

• a neighbor giving me dirt to improve flower beds, and helping me learn about “earthing” for improved health
• an employee at the coffee shop customizing a treat for a customer’s dog
• seeing a car side swiped, though totaled, the driver was not hurt, and walked away
• providing bottled water to delivery persons as they do their job in this terrible heat
• a doctor responding to a late text, with a prescription, on last Saturday evening
• a childhood friend, reconnecting through social media from thousands of miles away, offering to send photos of the donut shop, the location of my first job ever
• listening to a young person’s delight on the day they are hired for a job they really wanted

When you have the time, please make the time, to create a collection of overlooked moments in your life. These collections are the cells of our lives that ground us and are so uniquely human. Try it…

#gratitudeultra