Precious Preserves

It always happens every once in a while when we get immensely touched by a stranger or a casual acquaintance that we come across in an environment of necessity and chance. Their acts would themselves be simple, sometimes merely a call of duty, yet they would have emanated something profoundly humane and refreshing that makes you want to reach out and capture  those pristine moments that paint the world in beautiful colors, and present mankind in such an uplifting picture. These moments can’t be made to linger - they are far too evanescent and are perhaps made to shine only due to our lens intensely concentrating on the focal point of purity and goodness, magnifying its light in manifolds and drenching us for those few moments. We walk away holding onto these moments that sometimes could nearly veer our lives to a different lane.

Every time I slump down at humanity’s bitter and selfish charades, I force myself to remember these moments - a genuine smile and concern from a person who hardly knows you, a twinkling chuckle of good humor and optimism from a person who faces a tough battle against his body, a heartfelt note of gratitude and kindness from someone you considered grumpy and ill-tempered, flowers from someone you paid least attention to, an eager hand of help extended by those who need not have, the countless lovely and serendipitous gestures of affection and friendship from faceless people, and all the other hundreds of little bubbles of genuine benevolence floating around the spaces of memory and slowly dissipating as they wane with time.

How I wish I could bottle them all as a magic potion, a temporary panacea, all these dozens of tiny spangles of pixie-dust, harnessed to be blown out into the world and infect people with their warmth, or to be used as a roll-on analgesic to recharge oneself in its brief spells of solace. If only my memory could preserve them in such air proof containers. And if only I knew the spell to cast them like a charm whenever I wished...