The Sweetness of the Stolen Moment

The Sweetness of the Stolen Moment

What is in our human nature that takes joy at the reprieve of time meant to be spent in one pursuit, but instead is granted to us, unexpectedly, like a gift, to be used for something else? So often that feeling of catching up on our day, by having one element of it re-scheduled or even eliminated, recharges and invigorates us like nothing else can. We indulge in the sweetness of the stolen moment.

First memories of stolen moments include those few minutes between when we are called by our parents but before we actually come. Whether it’s in the morning before we have to get up or when we are outside at play and it’s time for dinner, those few moments between the warning call and the final threat are those sweet little stolen moments. They represent independence in a small measure, the last savor of freedom before another’s schedule is imposed on us.

As we get older, stolen moments come in more mature ways such as standing on the porch with a date ten minutes after curfew. Technically we are at home, but still stealing precious minutes of delicious flirtation. Our heart beats wildly for a few more seconds before we must go in and re-live the evening in our minds. The last drop of sweet reality before time turns into memory.

Maybe it’s staying home “sick” from school even though we just had a headache that quickly went away with a dose of aspirin. The guilty pleasure of a day to lounge and watch TV rather than sit in class is all the more sweet because we have been given the perfect excuse to be lazy. In fact, it is almost expected of us on such days. It removes the guilt and makes it pure pleasure indeed.

As an adult, stolen moments are much harder to come by. Consequences for stealing a few extra minutes of sleep are greater when it causes us to be late for work rather than simply tardy for school. However, the guilty pleasures are there to be found. Going shopping with girlfriends when we should be doing our laundry makes the time spent more fun, even though in the back of our minds we are already searching for ways to compensate for our indulgence. And speaking of indulgence, who among us hasn’t sworn to ourselves that we will work out an extra half hour tomorrow to make up for eating a decadent dessert tonight?

The relief of a canceled appointment that gives us an extra few minutes makes our day so blessedly fresh, almost like a renewal. It brings back energy to our day. There is also joy in finishing an appointment early. It becomes time saved to put toward the next task, getting us ahead of ourselves and therefore closer to the successful end of a long day. These are the stolen moments that make us happy, even if we are not consciously aware of it.

If adulthood brings its difficulties in finding stolen moments, parenthood multiplies those difficulties by ten! The sweet relief of napping while the baby naps trumps cleaning the house even though it’s an opportunity to clean without interruption. What mother hasn’t gone into the bathroom to do “number one” but let her family think she needs more time just so she could finish a magazine article in peace and quiet? How many parents have ‘taken a nap’ (wink, wink!) while the kids watched a movie just to find some time together when they aren’t so tired they fall asleep with good intentions and wishful thinking? Somehow desperation compels us to find and steal the moments from our schedule. Our sanity demands it.

Stolen moments, somehow their sweetness sustains us. There is an element that satisfies us when we give ourselves that permission to behave a bit irresponsibly. Duty will always be waiting for us. The unrelenting pressure remains our taskmaster, keeping constant vigil over our time. That’s why the delightful moments when our taskmaster’s eyes are averted and we slip away from the demands of life to a few stolen minutes of reckless abandonment makes the experience sweeter. We know that there are things to be done, tasks to be accomplished, responsibilities to carry out. To grant ourselves the extravagance of being carefree returns us to the real world with a lighter heart, ready again to shoulder our load and accept the limits of a planned schedule. We can do so because we anticipate the next opportunity for the sweetness of a future stolen moment.

(C) 2012 Amy Bambilla. All Rights Reserved.