moments

on my drive into work this morning, i was listening to a CD that i made a couple of years ago called "you remind me" (referring, of course, to the Usher song of the same name). all the songs on the CD remind me of memorable moments or people in my life, either present or past. r. kelly's "i believe i can fly" came on and a really sweet and cool memory came back to me:

i was volunteering as a chaperone for my brother's grade 4 or 5 field trip - i don't even know where we went. we were on the school bus which was equipped with speakers. the bus driver, being the cool old guy that he was, had hooked up his portable CD player and was playing the "Space Jam" soundtrack as we drove. i remember that all the kids were chattering away and the adults were scattered around the bus to ensure that no one got out of hand. no one was really paying attention to the drive or the music that accompanied us. then, "i believe i can fly" came on. it starts of soft so you couldn't even tell it was playing. at the first round of the chorus, one ham in the class started singing at the top of his lungs - crazy 10 year old boys. at the second round of the chorus, a few more kids joined in - still just goofing off but with a little more feeling now. the final round of the chorus, when the gospel choir in the song joins in, the whole bus - teachers, bus driver and yours truly included - started singing. it sounds like nothing - just a single moment in time that wasn't even significant. but i still get goosebumps just thinking about it - it almost makes me cry.

i read somewhere once that life is made up of moments and i believe it. when i look back on my life (particularly now that it's only 8 days until my 29th birthday - my 30th year of being on this earth), all i can remember are moments. some more clear than others and others more memorable than some. i think when people talk about having a good life, they are talking about having a life of moments - moments to remember, whether good or bad. some moments are always in the short term memory and others are retrieved from the long term memory by a subtle reminder - like a song.