We don't regard the good moments seriously enough

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One insight I get from reading Thomas Traherne (1637-1674) is that we habitually ignore and downgrade the paradisal, the heavenly aspects of our everyday lives.

There are moments of sheerest delight, of perfection - yet they barely register, or we shrug them aside to get-on with something else, or we persist in looking-forward to something else. 

Yet for the Christian these are foretastes and glimpses of Heaven.

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The moments should not, need not be, grasped at nor 'reflected' upon - they are permanent, and they will continue to do their work. However, they certainly ought not to be slighted, mentally-denigrated, shoved-down and subordinated to worldly concerns.

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That sitting with the family around the dinner table, chatting and laughing; that looking up to see Venus, the crescent Moon and Jupiter in a blazing line across the evening sky - that was not trivial, but one of the most important moments in your earthly life. To be treasured in eternity.

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