One Moment Can Change Everything

April 2025

I grew up in a six-story apartment building in Queens, NY, until I was 14. Each floor had a small, dark, and dingy incinerator room where we disposed of our trash. The air was thick with an unpleasant smell, and the pull-down chute swallowed our garbage, sending it down into the building’s basement.

Taking out the trash was never my father’s job—it was something my mother, my younger brother, and I took care of. But one Friday evening, for the first time, my father stepped into that incinerator room. He was horrified and disgusted.

The following  Monday, he and his friend Joe went looking for houses on Long Island. He came home that evening and told my mother that he had bought a house. And just like that were moving. One moment changed everything for me and my family.   

Sometimes, we agonize over decisions, weighing every possibility. At other times we just know that where we are, what we are doing, and who we are doing it with, is just not working. And there is a moment in time when we break free of indecision, pause and listen to our truth. I experience this a lot as I create my art. Is this piece finished? Should I add some color here? Is it too much? Is the focal point where I want it? And then there is a moment of clarity, and I just know. And sometimes, that knowing means letting go. Should this piece go to the incinerator or is it just, right?   

What have been the moments in your life when you just knew? 
I’d love to hear about these moments.