"After her death in 1941, a collection of Virginia Woolf’s autobiographical writings was published, titled “Moments of Being”. Moments of being are intense moments of personal significance; moments which are exclusively individual. At the time, you may not be sure of the meaning of a moment of being, but you sense or feel that, somehow, the moment is important. In part, this significance derives from its insignificance to others. The moment is intimately yours. A moment of being might appear trivial: hearing waves break, noticing the hue of an evergreen leaf, smelling night-blooming ginger. But the object, image, sight, sound or smell acquires symbolic significance – it stands for something else, something profound and deeply personal that permeates the innermost fiber of your being. A moment of being is often a shock, a flash of recognition, a revelation as meaning unfolds. However irrational, this is a privileged moment, a transcendent truth about yourself or the world, perceived in a flash of intuition. Upon such moments, says Virginia Woolf, such moments of being, we anchor our lives, and caress the essence of who we are. And we mark time, the intervals of time passing."
Nick Barker, Reflections on Adversity
Nick Barker, Reflections on Adversity