"Meaning Is Made In The Moments."

This week on WORDS MATTER, Deanna Ley, The Catalytic Coach, shares a Thanksgiving-week message built around one grounding truth:

“Meaning is made in the moments.”

This episode introduces what Deanna calls the MOMENTOUS FIVE — five kinds of moments that help you stay grounded through the holidays and beyond. These moments clear the old stories, soften reactions, and open the door for real gratitude in real life.

What Listeners Will Learn:
• Why meaning grows inside real moments, not imagined stories
• How to notice the small, steady moments you usually overlook
• How to step out of old patterns and stay present with what is true
• How repair often begins with one soft choice
• Why living in alignment with what matters most creates gratitude that lasts

Memorable Quotes — One From Each of the MOMENTOUS FIVE:
• “What is actually happening right now? And what am I adding on top of it?”
• “Minute Moments are the way gratitude taps you on the shoulder.”
• “You can be grateful for the lesson a moment gave you — even if you wouldn’t want to relive it.”
• “Mending does not mean everything is fixed. It means something has started to shift toward healing.”
• “Matterful Moments are the ones where what you value and how you live begin to match.” 

This episode invites you into a lived, grounded form of gratitude — the kind shaped by Mindful Moments, Minute Moments, Meaningful Moments, Mending Moments, and Matterful Moments. When you notice them, the truth of your life comes back into focus, and when you let them matter, they influence the days ahead in ways that make space for gratitude to grow.

Your WORDS MATTER — and your MOMENTS MATTER — because YOU MATTER.

❤️❤️❤️

Transcript

Well, hey there, friends! Welcome back. Welcome back to another episode of WORDS MATTER. I'm really glad you're here with me, especially this week. Thanksgiving is tomorrow here in the United States, and it marks the start of the holiday season. This time of year always brings a lot with it, doesn't it? Your calendar fills. Expectations rise. Old stories tend to wake up.

There can be gratitude, tension, love, grief, laughter, and awkward moments - sometimes all in the same afternoon. Now, as I sat with what I wanted this episode to be, one phrase kept coming back to me.

Meaning is made in the moments.

We talk a lot about gratitude this time of year, and it can start to sound like something we're supposed to feel on command - almost like a line we recite, instead of an experience we live.

When that happens, it's easy to miss where gratitude actually lives.
It lives in the moments that are right in front of us.

The catch is that many of us have a habit that gets in the way. We walk into rooms, conversations, and situations already braced for how we think they will go. We attach emotions to what someone says. We assign meaning to a look, or a delayed reply, or a comment made at the table.

Before we know it, the moment is no longer just a moment. It turns into a story about what people think of us - or about what we think of them.
 And that story? It steals our joy. It disrupts our peace.

So today, I want to walk through five kinds of moments that can shift that pattern and help you move through this week and this whole holiday season - shoot, through your life - with more intention and more gratitude.

I call them the MOMENTOUS FIVE.

Mindful Moments. Minute Moments. Meaningful Moments. Mending Moments. Matterful Moments.

Let's start with Mindful Moments.

Mindful Moments are the ones where you actually stay in the room you are in, instead of in the story in your head.

They begin when you pause just long enough to notice what's really happening around you. You hear the words someone is saying instead of filling in what you're afraid they mean. You feel your feet on the floor. You notice your fork and your plate and the sound of the conversation going on around you. You come back to the present moment, not the imaginary future where everything has already gone wrong.

Now in a Mindful Moment, you can ask yourself one simple question:
"What is actually happening right now? And what am I adding on top of it?"

That question can loosen the grip of a long held story, friends.

Maybe the person who walked past you at a gathering is distracted, not dismissive.
Maybe the text that felt short came from their busy day, rather than irritation.
Maybe a family member who always makes the side comment is repeating their own negative pattern, and it has less to do with you than you think.

When you step into a Mindful Moment, you give yourself room to respond, instead of react. You make space for gratitude to show up, because you're finally seeing it — that moment — as it is, not as your fear or your frustration insists it must be.

From there, we move into Minute Moments.

Minute — with that softer sound — the tiny kind.

Minute Moments are the ones that look small from the outside, yet they carry more weight than they appear to. They often slip by because we're chasing something bigger. You pour a cup of coffee and someone meets your eyes with real kindness. A child leans on you while they watch a game. A friend sends a simple "thinking of you" message that lands right when you need it.

You step outside for a few moments of fresh air after the dishes are done and you feel your shoulders drop.

On a holiday week, there can be a lot of focus on the big scene - the meal, the photos, the schedule. The truth is, is that most of the meaning this week will be built inside the smaller experiences that never show up on social media.

Minute Moments are the way gratitude taps you on the shoulder.

When you notice them, you start to see that there are more held than you realized — that your life is not made up of responsibilities and lists and to-dos. It's made up of these tiny, honest moments that remind you that you're alive and connected.

Then there are the Meaningful Moments.

Meaningful Moments are the ones that shape you. They might not feel comfortable while you're in them.

Sometimes they arrive through hard conversations that finally tell the truth. Sometimes they appear in a decision where you choose your health over someone else's expectations. Sometimes they show up when you are tempted to fall back into an old pattern and you choose a different path instead. One that serves you.

When you look back over this year, you may see a handful of Meaningful Moments that changed how you see yourself.

Maybe you started setting a boundary that needed to be there.
Maybe you walked away from something that kept you small.
Maybe you reached out for help instead of trying to carry everything alone.

Those decisions might not have come with fireworks, yet they shifted the ground under your feet.

Gratitude fits here in a deep way. You can be grateful for the lesson a moment gave you, even if you would not want to relive it. You can be grateful for the growth that came from it, even if it stretched you.

Meaningful Moments become the evidence that you are still becoming and that your story is still in motion.

Next are the Mending Moments.

Mending Moments are the ones where repair begins. They don't need a grand apology or a long speech.

Sometimes they are as simple as someone catching your eye and softening, and you soften in return. Sometimes they are you choosing to speak up kindly, instead of simmering in resentment. Sometimes they look like you extending compassion to yourself, even when you would have criticized yourself in the past.

Now keep in mind that Mending does not mean that everything is fixed.
 It means something has begun to shift toward healing.

Maybe it's the first honest talk after a misunderstanding, or the long drive home where you release that one comment instead of replaying it all night - or all year. Maybe it's you telling yourself in the middle of a tough day, "I did the best I could - with what I knew and with what I had".

Those are Mending Moments, friends.

Gratitude can live here, too. You can feel grateful for the chance to repair. Grateful for the softness that replaces the tension. Grateful for the courage it took to take that step forward.

Now, last, the Matterful Moments.

As you probably realize, MATTERFUL is not a word you will find in the dictionary. I made it up. And I love it.

Matterful Moments are the ones that line up with what matters most to you. They're the moments where your choices and your values, they match in a way that feels right. They are the times when how you show up reflects who you truly are and who you want to be.

A Matterful Moment might be you choosing to leave your phone in another room and listen to the person across from you. Really listen. It might be you saying YES to a walk instead of another round of doom scrolling. It might be you choosing to bring your real self to the table rather than the version you think everyone else expects.

These are the moments that feel aligned — congruent. They feel like they fit your life — not someone else's script for it.

This is where WORDS MATTER comes in, because Matterful Moments are shaped by the words you speak to others - and the words you speak to yourself. They're shaped by the way you label your experiences.

When you tell yourself "nothing went right", you erase the Minute Moments and the Mending Moments that actually did.

When you tell yourself, "Yeah, there were hard parts. And there were Meaningful parts", you give your heart a fuller picture.

Your words guide what you remember and what you remember guides what you build next.

So as you move through this Thanksgiving week - through the holiday season and into 2026 - I want to invite you into a different kind of gratitude.

Not gratitude as a performance that you list because you think you should.
Gratitude as a lived experience built inside of REAL MOMENTS.

Mindful Moments where you stay present instead of assigning meaning that steals your joy.
Minute Moments where you notice the tiny pieces of goodness that hold more weight than they seem to.
Meaningful Moments where you recognize how this year has shaped you.
Mending Moments where repair begins and you return to yourself.
Matterful Moments where what you value and how you live begin to match.

Meaning is made in the moments.

This week, you have the chance to notice them, to show gratitude toward them, and to allow them to matter.

Friends, the words we see and read, the words we hear and the words we say to ourselves and about ourselves - about what we're doing and how we're doing it - they all matter.

Your WORDS MATTER — and your MOMENTS MATTER — because YOU MATTER.

Have a great day.