Moments

1.

She turned around and looked at me with those big round eyes.

There were loud cheers and music playing in the background.

And as if she was letting me in on a well-kept secret, she whispered, “I’m nervous.”

I reached for her small clammy hands and gave a reassuring squeeze.

“You’re gonna be just fine. Don’t worry. Just do your best, OK?”

It seemed to work.

She smiled and nodded, “OK.”

Not soon after, the MC was calling out her name.

Later, when she finished playing the last note on the piano, she turned around and looked at me with those same big round eyes. They were sparkling.

There were loud cheers and applause in the background.

And as if it were a secret only she and I knew, I whispered, “See, you can do it.”

She gave me a dazzling smile and hugged me so tight.

It was a short moment.

But that short moment made me think of several things.

Words of encouragement plant seeds of confidence in fragile hearts.

We all need someone who will believe in us.

Happiness, in one of its simplest forms, is a sincere hug from a child.

2.

You looked up at the countless stars burning away silently in the night sky.

You think of the time lag between the real life of stars up there and the way you see them down here. Maybe, it’s kind of like seeing baby photos of those stars when in reality, they could be all wrinkled and old. And maybe, that’s why looking at stars makes you feel a sense of melancholy and nostalgia because you are looking into the past and it’s like revisiting a beautiful memory that you know can never happen again.

That night, aimless with nothing better to do, you wondered if there’s any way to spot the ghost of a star that had already died.

3.

A pair of hands.

The first time you held them, he said, “I have calloused hands,” as if apologizing for his hands. You told him, “It’s okay. I don’t mind.” Now, you keep forgetting to tell him how much you have grown to love mapping the calluses on the hard landscape of his palms.

Those calloused hands remind you of your favorite pair of gloves that came to fit perfectly around your hands with time. It’s those hands you reach for when you’re navigating through an overwhelming sea of people at a busy train station. Those hands keep you grounded when you are hungry and lost on the streets of an unfamiliar town. Those hands have a language of their own that reminds you to slow down, breathe and enjoy the moment.

How does it feel like to hold those calloused hands?

At first they may feel rough.

Then, they start to feel familiar. The strange and foreign touch morph into that of safety and warmth.

And finally, they will feel like home.