Enjoy Your Magical Moments to the Fullest

By Gail Lynne Goodwin.

I believe that life is comprised of a string of magical moments, memories that are so strong, so inspiring that we tuck them away into the recesses of our brain, and play them back when we want to relive them again. Right now, I’m creating more of these moments.

We’ve chartered a boat from Northwest Expeditions and we’re cruising the waters off the coast of British Columbia, north of the San Juan (US) and Gulf Islands (Canada), in an area called Desolation Sound. To say the area is stunning would be an understatement. Not only are we surrounded by physical beauty, this kind of Nature also evokes feelings in me that make me go deeper and crave connection to something greater than myself.

After enjoying dinner on board the boat, my husband and I hopped into our dinghy and motored for a few minutes, to an area with an unobstructed view of the sunset across the crystal clear waters. There, we discovered a magical moment beyond words.

We sat in this tiny dinghy, with the engines off, listening only to the occasional screeching cries of the local seagulls and the sounds of playful seals as they came to the surface and splashed loudly. Then, silence again until another creature appeared. We sat in the stillness, in awe of the moment, watching the sunset into the horizon, totally inspired.

The light show that accompanied this display of Nature was astounding. Never have I experienced a sunset quite like this one. We were mesmerized for about 30 minutes, as the sky lit up with bright oranges and yellows, only to turn to pinks and blues, then as it dropped into a cloud bank, it turned an intense orange, like looking into a furnace with glowing coals. As the sun set into a bank of clouds right at the horizon, it looked as though a hillside was ablaze. The reflection off of the still water was breathtaking.

We sat in the silence, in awe, as the scene changed every 15 seconds or so. It was the best movie ever! After the sun had set, we still sat there, not wanting to leave the area, even though we had drifted quite a way from our original viewing spot. Reluctantly, we decided it was time to turn on the engine and return to the boat before darkness set in.

On the dinghy ride back to our boat, I felt as if I’d been given a gift from God himself, something that I will have forever in my memories. I felt so small in the grand scheme of things, yet so connected to each and every part of the world around me. I wanted to jump into the frigid waters and splash with the seals. I wanted to soar into the sky with the gulls.

In the end, I stayed in the boat, hugged my husband and thanked him for taking me to that spot, pulled my fleece a little tighter to stay warm in the cooling temperatures, and smiled the whole way back to the boat.

I was filled with a gratitude that I can’t even express in words… a gratitude that goes so deep and overflows into everything that I do. In the absolute silence of our adventure, I experienced a magical moment that renewed my sense of self and my place in this world. Nothing else mattered but that moment. I was connected to everything around me and in the grand scheme of things, I mattered.

This morning as I woke to the sound of rain gently falling on the roof of our little floating home and the shrieks of the gulls, I was once again reminded of my connection to the world around me, and once again, I’m filled with gratitude for this beautiful world we live in.

Something tells me that today will also be filled with more magical moments, and I intend to enjoy them to the fullest, with gratitude. I share this with you in the hopes that you too are taking the time to experience some magical moments in your life, or that you can somehow enjoy this one vicariously through me.

I’d love to hear from you…. what’s your most recent magical moment that inspired you? When we share things like this, we grow closer to each other and closer to the Universe around us. And to me, that’s the point of inspiration after all.