I can feel how large, how essential this moment is as it’s happening; that is what I have come to love about being an adult, to the extent that I can claim that title: that one knows more about how good things are, how much they matter, as they’re happening, that knowledge isn’t necessarily retrospective anymore.
When I was younger, I missed so much, failing to be fully present, only recognizing the quality of particular moments and gifts after the fact. Perhaps that’s the one thing that being “grown up” is:
to realize in the present the magnitude or grace of what we’re being offered.
– Mark Doty, “Heaven’s Coast”
I LOVE this quote. Thanks for sharing it.
Love this. I’ve been thinking so much lately about how to be in the present moment. I love how this quote can connect that with my thinking about what being ‘grown up’ is. I’ve been wondering for years (more than I’d like to admit; I think it was a topic for one of my college essays)when I would feel like an adult. Maybe that’s the measure— when I can BE in the moment and feel how much things matter—then I am basking in the pleasure and privilege of being grown up. The moments, then, that I am not being aware— are those moments I am running from being grown up? forgetting? not quite there yet? I am not familiar with Mark Doty, so thank you for this at a time that it fits so nicely with where I am at…trying to be.