One scene from the film
The very first memory I have lasts, as far as I can tell, for a second.
It’s a sliver of a slice of a moment. There are stairs, outside stairs, and underneath them a basket with a litter of sleeping puppies. In my mind’s eye I can see their little chests heaving. And that’s it. I was two years old and it’s the very first thing I can recall.
Just one second.
If you think about it, most of the things that really matter in life aren’t long-winded affairs. We aren’t captured absolutely by the beauty of a play or a novel from start to finish. We may say we are, but the moment will strike you just once somewhere in between and it will be fleeting. Like the flash of a camera. But you will know it right then and there and you will know it strongly: I like this book. Or play.
The great tragedy in all this, of course, is that so many seconds pass us by without so much as a nod of recognition. If one second can be so stunningly arresting, isn’t it horrific that we let so many slip through? But that so many zip by unnoticed makes those that stand-out even more powerful.
There are 86,400 seconds in a day. Finding one so beautiful and so utterly wonderful makes it a rare find. One in 86,400, to be precise. There are more than 31 million seconds in a year. White noise, most of them, but we collect but a few to put on the mantlepiece of our mind.
A whispered word, the corner of a smile from someone unexpected, the way your dog grins briefly at you, the precise and perfect shade of bloody-purple during a magnificent sunset. A fraction of a moment after your best friend has said something so monstrously funny that you lose control of your usual functions and slap your thighs or snort ungraciously.
Moments can be heart-rending, too. Or breath-taking in the literal sense of the term. Remember the feeling you get when you almost fall off a chair? Of course you do. Or the hundreds of little seconds from growing up when you felt shame or bitter disappointment or anger or things we would normally associate with the opposite of beauty. But these things, too, are beautiful because they are the little vignettes that confirm our humanity.
If we could put all our feelings into a jar and arrange them on a shelf, we could look directly at our selves.
Oh, how beautiful indeed.
That’s what makes The Beauty of Second project so powerful. To commemorate the invention of the chronograph (a device invented 190 years ago that measures a fifth of a second, basically a watch with a stopwatch function) film-maker Wim Wenders asked film-makers, both amateur and not, to send in their films. Each of them made by stitching together one-second moments into a larger piece.
This is just one entry, and it will make you smile.
Seconds Of Beauty – 1st round compilation from The Beauty Of A Second on Vimeo.
What one second moments do you remember? Which ones would you include in your own film?
Comments
65 Comments so far
I have been thinking of this post often since I read it earlier in the week, at 2am, whilst feeding my 10 week old son in the dark, on my iphone, considering the (very well written), lines: “so many seconds pass us by without so much as a nod of recognition. If one second can be so stunningly arresting, isn’t it horrific that we let so many slip through?”
Here I was, feeding my gorgeous new son and I was on my Iphone! Letting that precious moment slip by. A little ironic. Which made me realise that I have let so much of my life pass me by without always acknowledging those precious little moments. Therefore, I have spent that past few days thinking of two things:
1. What are those moments in the past that I remember so vividly? What does that say about me and what is important to me?
and
2. How can I make even more of those moments stay lodged in my head in the future? How can I recognise those them, grasp them by the horns and drag them into my head to live forever? I don’t think there is an easy answer, but Ric, I must thank you for this article for making me focus on trying to do this more.
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My aunt walking me to the bus stop when I was in kindy.
Picking up the phone when dad called to say my brother was born.
The freaky moment with the librarian ghost in Ghostbusters. Still gets me every time.
Every single time I fly back into Sydney.
Coming back to Australia after my marriage broke up and feeling alive for the first time in a very long time.
The first time I walked through the Rocks and recognising bits from Playing Beattie Bow.
Discovering Elizabrth Bennett.
Seeing the silhouette of a mountain in India at dusk in the shape of a thumbs up and making a ‘Thums Up’ joke.
Walking through Florence on my own early in the morning, just as the city was waking up , and pretending it was hundreds of years ago.
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Wow- what a fantastic post. I can’t remember my first memory… But along the way I’ve had many seconds that have etched themselves in my mind & when I think or remember them, I still feel them in my heart, some snap my breath away.
My most favorite seconds mostly relate to my son who is my miracle, being told I was pregnant, my husbands reaction, when he was delivered, the countless smiles & joy from then to today.
I just thought if another favorite- squeezing my dads hand- hard, all the way to the church to marry my husband.
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1) Walking into my friend’s apartment and immediately looking into the eyes of the guy who was to become my boyfriend – we have now been together 5 years.
2) All the coloured bunnies tails seedheads hanging and drying on strings in my Grandma’s lemon tree (we had dyed them with food colouring).
3) Jake’s* eyes full of laughter and intensity meeting mine over cards. (Name changed – Jake has a wife and daughter, neither of us would cheat).
4) My dad spitting on my mum when I was a kid. (The only time in my life I ever saw him argue or act violently towards her).
5) My darling and sorely missed friend saying ‘I don’t need sugar I’m sweet enough already’ (that is more than 1 second I know, but I can hear her saying it in my head).
6) The shock of stepping through into customs and leaving my then boyfriend behind at the airport, knowing that was the end, when I moved overseas.
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my new years resolution after seeing this is to take quality photos more often, rather than 100+ of the same thing every 6 months
xxxmissvxxx.wordpress.com
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Hehe, mine is to stop taking my camera on all my holidays as I want my memories to come through my eyes, not through the lens of a camera!!
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I love this article. The idea of storing a few seconds to put on the mantlepiece of our mind reminds me of the lyrics to my favourite Greenday song ‘so take the photographs and still frames in your mind. Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time’
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Beautifully written. A pleasure to read.
I have many snapshot memories in childhood. It would be hard to list just a few. I remember clearly locking my mother in the chook/goose pen when I was about 2-3. We were getting the eggs and I was terrified of the geese (still not that fond of them now!) If you think about the height of a small child and a hissing goose you will understand my concern. Anyway, no amount of cajoling or threatening would convince me to open the gate and let mum out in case the geese got out too. She had to wait until my father came in from the fields for lunch before she was released.
Needless to say I wasn’t taken on egg hunting expeditions again for quite some time!
I also clearly remember my great grandmother (who lived with us) sitting at her dressing table brushing her long long hair and putting it up in a big bun on the back of her neck. She died when I was 3 so I only have a few of these of her.
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It was Mothers day 1993. I was lying in hospital having just given birth to our first child, a magnificent daughter (now 18) after a difficult labour. I was feeling fragile and pretty frightened when my beautiful husband arrived back from home with a basket brimming with the comforts of home – my favourite blue and white striped TG Green cups, teapot and delectable italian biscuits, and proceeded to make me a cup of my favourite Earl Grey tea. (nurses thought he was hilarious). He also brought me a stunning red autumn pin oak leaf from the street below my hospital room. I still have that leaf. It remains a tender memory, a beginning to motherhood that included post-natal depression for almost two years and a very slow blossoming into my new role. All these years later, I feel so utterly comfortable with it all and love being a mother SO much but can remember the first tentative steps like they were yesterday. I guess that is the gift of deeply moving experiences.
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Rick
Please write your book a bit faster. Could read your words all day.
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I luff you!
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At around 2 years old: sitting on the carpet of the living room and looking at the dance of the sparkles of dust in a ray of light. Beautiful.
At the beach, at about 3 years old: looking at the deconstructed ray of light through a beach towel my mother had placed over my head for me to take a nap. A rainbow of dots and intertwined circles…magic.
Once around 10 years old, waking up just before dawn, sitting on the deck of the boat and watching the sun come up, my knees in my arms and my hair on my knees floating in the breeze, and the sun started to make it shine in red and pink and white.
Why are all of my childhood memories associated with the sun?
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Walking the red carpet with Robert Pattinson in Sydney earlier this year. I was trying so hard to take as many photos as possible, and looking through my cameras viewfinder at him the whole time. I remember thinking “sack this” and took my camera down, watched him from about 3 metres away take a fan photo on someones iphone, and then get dragged to interviews by his security. I dont have any good photos of him that I took, and I remember nothing except that moment. Its horrible when something so precious is happening, and you get so overwhemled and forget to drink it all in.
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Lovely, Rick, just lovely.
I really love remembering the snapshots of life.
Here are just a few off the top of my head:
At about 18month old. Was in the backseat of the kingswood, driving through some zoo in NSW, when a donkey stuck his head in the window, opened his big mouth right in front of my face and Eeee Awwwed, long and loud.
Two of my miscarriages. The moment the nausea stopped, and I knew.
Another, passing the foetal sac into a public toilet. Standing there looking down at it, intact, not wanting to flush it away.
Seeing my eldest child (about 12 months at the time) after returning from a trip away (first time away from her). I was at top of escalator, she was at the bottom with dad. When she spotted me, her face lit up and she did a little dance. It was the sweetest thing ever.
Finding a mother and new born birds in the tree right next to our deck the other day.
Holding a Tarsier monkey in the palm of my hand
Every year, the jacaranda blooms.
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This is gorgeous, sad, happy, beautiful, thanks for sharing.
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I have a few….being told I couldn’t have children, gut wrenching…..being told our first IVF attempt was successful, two weeks pregnant and sooooo excited…….holding my beautiful son after giving birth, I love him so much it hurts…….saying I do in Vegas, frickin awesome!!
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You are such a poet Rick. If only you were straight….
…but oh well you’ll make some guy pretty lucky I think. If you decide not to become a recluse after all hehe. Xx
My favourite one second memory is probably when I was about 8. My elder sister and I would walk to school together down the road and our two younger sisters were both under 2 and they’d follow us outside every morning, even in the middle of winter wearing next to nothing and stand with their feet in between the metal bars of the gate holding on like they were inmates in a jail. We’d hear them crying all the way down the road because they didn’t want us to go to school. Their little heartbroken faces always stayed with me. Coming home after school to play with them was the greatest thing ever!
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This is then followed by another one second memory of older sister making me walk ten metres behind her down the road to school so no-one would know we were related. lol
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I wish I was straight too!
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You don’t do you? Have I missed something here?
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If I were honest, I do. That’s not to say I’m not happy as I am. But you know, it’d be nice … in the sense it would be easier. Oh dear, I don’t think I’m doing a very good job of explaining this one.
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That’s a huge thing to share! From the little I know of you, I think you are absolutely beautiful the way you are. Keep strutting!
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Well, with women like me on the market, who could blame ya for wanting to be straight? You’re only human.
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Well I guess at some point we all wish for something we can’t have in our lives. As long as you are happy Rick. That’s important.
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wow. thats interesting rick. i understand (as much as a straight woman can i guess)
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Rick, once you fall in love with a guy and he falls in love with you I highly doubt that you will wish you were straight.
Simpler doesn’t mean better.
Merry Christmas.
xxx
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So beautifully written Rick (I can’t wait for your book).
I have many special seconds, and they are often remembered by or triggered by a familiar scent from my childhood
But my top moments of today are definitely those spent reading this post after coming in from a walk with my dog on the beach in the pouring rain. About 40 minutes all up – so definitely can’t count as a second – but you have made my Monday special…thank you!
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I have a happy one and a sad one. But I’m only going to mention the happy one.
The moment I met my cat Diesel for the first time. He was abandoned and left alone for 5 weeks. My late husband brought him home and locked him in the bathroom until I got home. When I got there I opened the door and he was sitting on the floor. He looked up at me and I looked down at him, and it was at that moment I knew I had the best cat ever, and you could tell HE knew, he had found his mum.
All it takes is a second.
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Oh yes! I think animals choose you. My husband talked me into a puppy, I wasn’t keen. But then we went to the animal shelter and they put her in my arms and she was shaking like a leaf, and when I held her she let out a big sigh and snuggled into my neck and went to sleep and I knew she was coming home with us!
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I’ve read Mama Mia for a long time now and this is the first time I’ve felt the need to commend Rick on his great writing.
Absolutely beautiful.
Love love love! Xx
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I’ll second that, Jana. This piece reads like poetry. It’s sublime, Thanks Rick.
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Thank you! I never quite know what to say to these but I do love the feedback!
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This has made me feel all overwhelmed and emotional in a really good way. Thanks for such a beautiful piece.
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My one second memory was my ultrasonagrapher telling us our 18 week old baby had a congenital heart defect. To follow up, my next one second memory was the cardiac surgeon telling me his operation went fine and he was ok. Thanks for this beautiful piece. Really well written. So many wonderful moments, life is truelly wonderful at times. Have a wonderful Christmas.
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My one second memory is when my five day old baby was wheeled out of hospital in a humidicrib to be transferred by ambulance to a neonatal intensive care ward at another hospital. I was not allowed to travel in the ambulance due to the many doctors and nurses required to be in there. My baby had his foot up on the side of the clear crib as if to tell me everything will be alright and luckily he was
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Oh, made me cry
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That was a lovely video.
I remember nap time at kindergarten, swimming in an aboveground pool at private lessons from a very early age and lots of little flashbacks to a time when I must have only been 3 or 4.
In recent years, the ‘aha’ moment when I bonded with my firstborn child. I had been in such a daze following the birth and I will never forget the moment in my loungeroom when I looked down at him and suddenly felt this overwhelming rush of love. I still feel a lump in my throat every time I think about it.
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So beautifully written Rick – thank you.
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Thank you for being so nice!
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I’m not sure what my first memory is, but I have a couple of one-second memories from the month I turned 3 which are probably close contenders.
The first is being in church at my uncle’s wedding, pointing at the priest & stage-whispering to my older brother, “IS THAT GOD?”
Shortly after the wedding we went on a short holiday to a town just down the coast from where we lived. My mother remembers this holiday because (despite living less than a mile from the beach) I apparently took fright at the waves & spent much of the time screaming about the ‘white water’. I remember none of that, but I do remember being awestruck when some local herdsmen brought a few cows onto the beach. (And no, I don’t know why they did it.)
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What beautiful writing Rick, thankyou.
I have many one-second memories of early childhood, but I can’t be sure which is the one when I was youngest – if that makes sense! One is the rustling of leaves on oak trees and mum calling out to me as I speedily ran toward the duck pond in Melbourne’s Botanic Gardens. We lived in an apartment across the road and the Gardens were my ‘backyard’. I can remember the smell of that moment as well… it was the smell of a hot day.
In later life, the first second I laid eyes on each of my newly born daughters. Two years apart but each of them with huge wide eyes staring so intently at me. Almost boring into my soul. Will never forget, etched into my mind like a tattoo.
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The most memorable moments for me in my life are the ones charged with the most emotion.
The instant I learned that my 2nd baby had died during an ultrasound.
Each of the moments I’ve discovered I was pregnant.
What a stunning video. Life really is made up of millions of moments. It’s so easy to forget that and seek that BIG MOMENT. When there are so many teeny tiny ones happening under our noses.
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Hey Mia – I read about your miscarriage in your book and mine was almost exactly the same. I remember the sonographer saying, “There’s the gestational sac, but I’m sorry, there’s nothing in it”, and just feeling like the world should grind to a halt. Won’t forget that second, and I really wouldn’t want to forget it, painful though it is. And yep, staring at the lines on the preg test and realising I was pregnant again was a pretty big moment too!
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The first thing I remember is going round the farm on the back of the ute and running over a little lamb.
I was about 3 and all I wanted to do was help it but my parent told me that if I touched it its mother would reject it..
Although I know the story what i really remember is the feeling of just wanting to help.
It wasnt till I was about 16 that I found out the lamb actually had died and didnt wantto subject me to that yet..
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My first memory is also a one-second-wonder. I was not quite 3, running around my great-grandma’s yard. The split second of memory is when I was at about a 45degree angle, on my way to being nose first in the dirt. I don’t remember the impact, I remember the fall.
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Beautiful. When I shelve memories away in future, Rick, I’ll think of your lovely turn of phrase “put on the mantlepiece of our mind”.
I don’t have many recollections from when I was young that I can be sure I remember absolutely and have not reconstructed from photos. But I will always remember the moments in my adult life when my heart spoke to me so loudly and clearly that I knew absolutely what I needed to do in that very moment; like saying ‘I love you,’ for the first time to my boyfriend because it could not remain unsaid any longer.
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Great piece Rick! Beautifully written. I also loved the ‘mantle piece of our mind’ part!
This made me feel many emotions while reading this, thinking of my one second memories, both beautiful & sad. Must say I also nearly snorted thinking about the last time I was with my girl friends and we experienced the snorting, tears running down your face from laughing conversations. Thanks Rick!
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The warmth of my father’s hand, so large that is seems to cover my whole back…
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Love this JJ – I remember being up in my Dad’s arms – I was upset or unwell, but he picked me up and I remember just feeling like everything was going to be OK because Daddy had me.
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Rick, what a beautiful piece of writing.
One of my (sadder) one-second memories is watching Brad (my husband) walk around the hospital theatre patting our stillborn daughter Georgie. When our daughter Ava couldn’t sleep we would joke that Brad would do the “daddy-pat”. And so I have a memory of him walking and patting Georgie to his chest and I will remember that for the rest of my life.
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Oh Bec, that made my eyes well up. How poignant. xx
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I don’t know what to say but I want to say something.
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I’ve never thought of memories quite like this, or perhaps I have and wouldn’t have been able to articulate it. Lovely, Rick. You really do write beautifully, there is so much colour and texture in this.
You’ve led me to some moments in time that I wouldn’t have known I could recall, such as the colour of the handtowel I took to Kindy the first day I went.
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My first ever memory is of lying in a cot in the local daycare as a baby. I remember the bars, the ceiling and the view outside the glass doors. I knew mum had left me there and wanted her back.
The one second memory I love is when my boyfriend and I first got together. He was hugging me and I felt so very nervous as he turned his head and I turned mine and we kissed for the first time.
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i so just awwwwwd at that!
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So lovely! The births of my two children are definitely amazing one second moments I’ll have imprinted on my mind forever. Along with the day that I looked into the eyes of my then work colleague (now husband) and my stomach went all funny feeling
.
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Wow. So beautiful and so well written.
This rings to true for me at the moment. After my diagnosis I am desperately trying to take in every moment – just in case. There is so much in life that can be captured in one second. The sound of the wind rustling the trees, the tight curl of a frangipani flower about to bloom, the shimmer of the glitter spilled across my floor, the giggle of my two children. I wish I could capture them all.
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sliver?
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Brain spasm! Fixing now!
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Oh Rick! I love the way you write.
“White noise, most of them, but we collect but a few to put on the mantlepiece of our mind.”
If you wrote a book, I would totally read it.
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Hold that thought because I AM writing a book! Stay tuned for its release in 2045!
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What a beautiful post.
One second is forever and no time at all, all at once.
My one second memory is the moment I laid eyes on my husband for the first time on a staircase. The way his green eyes widened when he saw me will never leave me.
He says he will never forget that moment either.
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What a beautiful comment! I hope one day to fall in love and experience that same moment
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I love this. And green eyes are totally the best
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Thanks….
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