The Preciousness of Time
This weekend I’m back home in Ocala, celebrating my mom’s 78th birthday alongside her dear friend’s 80th. Milestones like these feel different as we get older—less about the candles and more about gratitude for the time we still share. Unless, of course, you’re my mom, in which case it’s absolutely all about the cake. (I’ve never met anyone more delightfully obsessed with cake!) So, like any dutiful daughter, I made sure she had a beautiful one to enjoy.
As she unwrapped gifts and admired her cake, a tiny hummingbird finally appeared at her feeder. We’ve been trying for years to lure one in, and watching its delicate body hover and dart felt like a blessing—a reminder that some things take time, but joy does come.
That moment carried us back to just a few weeks earlier, when we passed through Maggie Valley, NC, on our descent from Wisconsin to Florida. Dozens of hummingbirds swirled around us like a personal welcome committee, dancing and darting in the crisp mountain air—a scene that felt almost like a fairytale.
🌿 The Preciousness of Time
As we move from midlife into the later chapters, birthdays shift in meaning. They become sacred markers—of endurance, of memory, of love.
This week has held reflections on loss too: friends saying goodbye to parents, a high school friend passing, a beloved great-aunt of another friend gone. These moments stir in me a deep awareness of impermanence.
Buddhism teaches that dying is not something to fear, but something to acknowledge with reverence. The concept of impermanence can feel heavy, yet it is also what makes life luminous. The truth that nothing lasts forever sharpens our gratitude for what is here, right now. Each birthday, each gathering, each ordinary afternoon becomes a chance to notice the miracle of being alive.
Death, then, is not an ending but a gentle reminder: don’t wait to live, to love, to savor. The special occasion is already here.
🍷 Drink the Good Stuff Now
How often do we wait for the “right time” to open the good wine, wear the perfume we love, or create the memory we’re longing for?
This weekend, I brought a bottle of 2005 Cuvée Louise by Champagne Pommery to our dear friend’s 80th birthday celebration. A Tête de Cuvée, it is the pinnacle expression of the house of Pommery—rare, elegant, and worth savoring. In the glass, it shimmers with finesse: delicate bubbles, notes of brioche, white flowers, and chalky minerality. Complex yet graceful, it is a wine that invites us to slow down and savor every sip.
The story of Madame Pommery is intriguing. When she was widowed in 1858, she transformed a modest business into one of the most visionary Champagne houses of all time. She championed the brut style of Champagne that we now cherish, showing the world that elegance could be both powerful and refined.
Beyond its wines, the house of Pommery has also become one of France’s great supporters of modern art. Their historic chalk cellars in Reims have been transformed into vast underground galleries, where contemporary works are exhibited alongside centuries-old stone walls. It’s a marriage of art, Champagne, and history—three of my favorite things in one luminous place.
Sharing this bottle with friends feels like the perfect embodiment of this truth: beauty is meant to be enjoyed, not tucked away for “someday.” Joy isn’t reserved for grand occasions—it’s stitched into the everyday, if we allow it.
“Beauty is meant to be enjoyed, not tucked away for ‘someday.’”
🌸 Sacred Reflection
As I look back on these celebrations, I’m reminded that life is made sacred not only in its milestones but also in its ordinary, fleeting moments. A hummingbird at the feeder. A birthday cake shared with family. A glass of Champagne raised among friends.These are the threads that stitch our days together, and Sacred Sundays has become my way of gathering them week by week.
💌 Sacred Invitation
Sacred Sundays has now become a collection—a garden of words and reflections I’ve tended week by week. For new readers, and those who've been with me the whole way, I’ve created a space where you can explore past letters, sip slowly through them, and maybe find something that speaks to you.
With love and gratitude,
Heather
Founder & Curator, The Bonne Vivant
Stories that Nourish. Moments that Matter.