There is one little part of the Amsterdam ‘city-pick’ book that has kept returning to my thoughts ever since I read it.  A good example of how the best bits are by the lesser-known writers. This is the particular passage that has been haunting me, from the diary of Simona Luff¹

I once saw a very beautiful Japanese film in which those who died had to decide on the moment from their life they wished to become their eternity.  One such moment that I would give serious thought to happened this morning: we stood in the centre of a bridge over the Herengracht, the spring sunshine on our faces, our arms around each other’s waists, enjoying the beautiful houses on either side and laughing at a little white cloud going for a swim in the canal.

It says so much in a few words.

I am not spiritual and believe in no afterlife at all, but if there was one I think that spending eternity in one perfect moment would be a good one.   The difficulty is choosing that moment.  Far better, I think, if some omniscient being could choose it for you because I suspect that we don’t always realise what those perfect moments are while we are having them because we are so wrapped up in them.

This has been haunting me as I have wondered, if given this choice to make, which moment I would choose to live in for ever in an endless instant.  Doeas any of us really know ourselves enough to know when we were at our happiest?

I suspect that many people would think, perhaps, of something like their wedding day, or when their first child was born, but I wonder if they are too obvious, or the times we are supposed to be happiest.  But maybe they are too contrived, and perhaps it is the tiny, everyday, moments like that one on the Herengracht that would count.  Would it be better to live in a moment of joy or one of contentment?

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1. No. Me neither. [↩]