This Unique Day revisited

The habit of ignoring our present moments in favor of others yet to come leads directly to a pervasive lack of awareness of the web of life in which we are embedded.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are

For the past month I’ve adopted a new practice of writing down at least one unique moment in every day. I already keep track of my appointments in my calendar, and my accomplishments in my journal. And I record phenological events, year after year, by noting events, like the linden trees that are just beginning to blossom, in a Book of Days.

But I was looking for something different to record in the weekly planner, Leaves from the Tree of Time, that I created for 2010 and so I decided to start recording unique moments, those moments in each day, never before experienced and not likely to be experienced again.

I’m enjoying the fruits of this practice. It helps me notice what is going on around me in an entirely different way. I know poets who write a haiku every day and photographers who take a photo every day (I love Doug Plummer’s daily photos; also the photos of Cate Kerr). And I also benefit as a writer from the time spent choosing just the right words to capture these images as if they were snapshots. In that sense, they are like haikus. I am trying to capture a particular moment (not always seasonal or natural) but in as few words as possible.

Here are some of my favorites:
April 6: A guy walks into Online Coffee and announces that Jesus blesses all of us
April 7: Pepe (the Chihuahua) licks a cherry blossom fallen in the parkway
May 1: I startle a crow, so close I can feel the wind from his feathers
May 2: A bald guy reading by flashlight behind three umbrellas in the doorway of the shoe shop

My recent trip to the beach was full of unique moments. Here are a few:
May 8: A black swan flies over my car on the Astoria Bridge, going south
May 8: Steam rising from the asphalt, sunshine on rain-soaked pavement, Route 26 between Astoria and Portland
May 8: After the rain shower, a coyote in the bushes shakes water off its fur like a dog, Route 26 between Portland and Astoria
May 8: Crossing the Astoria bridge north, it looks like I am driving into the sky
May 9: Floating on my back in the swimming pool, overhead white clouds float by in a blue sky, four birds fly by, high as the clouds and going the same direction. Long Beach, Washington
I spent this past Saturday at an Environmental Writing workshop sponsored every year by the Burke Museum. There were many unique moments in this day as well, for instance,

The pink blossoms in the hawthorn tree after the red-winged blackbird has gone.  Union Bay (once know as Tucked Away Inside), Seattle

This Unique Day

We do not remember days, we remember moments.

Cesare, Parese, Time Alive

I wanted to use my beautiful Calendar Companion weekly planner in a way that would help me capture the essence of each day. I already have a Book of Days in which I record phenological markers, like when the locust trees begin to leaf out, or the first dandelion gone to seed. So I came up with the idea of using the weekly planner to record a unique event on every day: something that had never happened before and I didn’t think would ever happen again.

This rather casual decision had an unexpectedly delightful effect, by shifting my attitude away from expected pleasures. While in my Book of Days, I’m recording natural phenomena, in my Unique Event log, I’m more often noting human actions. For instance: April 5: A guy walks into Online Coffee and shouts “Have a blessed day. Jesus has risen.” OR March 14: The violin man outside the QFC was playing the guitar tonight. Other times, however, they are natural events like March 25: The leaves on the tree across the street are the exact same color as the bricks of the apartment building. Perhaps my favorite so far: April 7: Pepe (the Chihuahua) licks a pink cherry blossom that has been dropped in the parkway.

Of course, there are mnay unique moments in a day. That is more and more obvious to me (a creature of habit who loves routine). And I am especially intrigued by noticing what I find significant enough to record. I’d love to hear about the unique events in your days.