I remember a moment when I stood in the lobby of a children’s hospital and screamed no when I was told the surgeon had found cancer in my child’s leg again. My scream was because of my powerlessness.

The moment is unclassified and raw. It cannot be sorted into piles of moments or reassigned to a later day. No, it comes at us with its purity and sometimes it knocks us over.

I have had many moments of screaming no and yet that affected nothing.

I have had moments of fatigue so deep that I collapsed but that did not affect the moment.

I have had moments of peace so profound that I died into it but that did not last.

Time does not last, nor do we.

So as tiny as a moment is, it has complete power. The breath is the same way. It goes on until it stops.

The world is unreal because it doesn’t last. Neither do we.

But something does and we cannot know it but we must surrender to it.

It is sweet and sure-footed and it can pick us up and carry us over rocky ground.

We sing hymns to it and we say prayers to it but it has never met us.

Something is bigger than you are and it is coming at you right now. Coming for you.

Vicki Woodyard