Breathless---Truely Breathless

"It is not the number of breaths you take that matter in life, but the number of moments that take your breath away."  ~unknown

I have discovered that I have grossly misused the phrase "it took my breath away" over the years. Always before, I have thought it meant to cause one to have a sudden intake of breath which is held and then slowly exhaled in an expression of "Ohhhh!!" or "Ahhhh!". I was wrong. That is to only be left breathless, which is not a bad sensation.



Today, at 50 +/- years of age, I have had the unique privilege of having something so compelling strike my senses that it literally took my breath away!! --- For the last week plus a little, I have had the joy of watching fall come to the remote highlands of West Virginia. We live in a little valley where everyone knows everyone else's car by the sound of the motor, and persons not belonging to the valley are noticed. It is quiet and peaceful.


Since I arrived, I have watched Spring peek up through the snow and dead vegetation and finally burst forth in a glorious riot of color, kissing the dead brown of winter with life and drawing the earth back from a long sleep to breath the sharp sweet air that only spring can bring to the mountain. I was impressed and lapped up the beauty of the flowering trees and spring flowers as they came forward, each with their own offering of beauty and fragrance that permeated the air around. I thought I had seen heaven and felt breathless at the beauty before me.

THEN summer snuck up behind, rolling over spring like a steamroller with it's wild array of flowers, bushes, trees and birds. I could not keep up. Every time I left the house, or so it seemed, my eyes, nose, and even my ears were met with new sensations and experiences. I stayed in a breathless stayed a good deal of the time as I dived into the splendors of nature's bounty that abounded at my doorstep.

Now fall is here. Over the last couple of weeks I have watched the leaves changing. Every day I have been out taking pictures and thinking that they were absolutely beautiful and it just couldn't get much prettier. That was so, until today. Today, I discovered what it meant to literally have my breath taken away.

As I headed up the mountain to go over it and into town, the leaves just kept getting bolder and brighter and more and more trees were on fire. A great many of the trees looked like flaming matchsticks. The bulk of the tree was still deep green but the outer reaches of the limbs the colors went through the rainbow from yellow to gold, orange and finally a brilliant red at the tips of the branches. It gave the sensation of a forest fire, out of control, raging across the mountain before me.

The noon day sun was shining down across the folds and mounds of the brilliantly burning trees as they waved in the breeze. I was stunned. My heart literally gave a lurch and for a few seconds I could not take a breath, I was so awed by the scene before my eyes. When I finally was able to gasp in a deep breath of air, I found that tears were welling up from deep with-in and flowing down my cheeks out of total awe at His majesty.

Every sense within my soul was drinking in the scene before me, memorizing the colors, the textures, the contrasts, and anything else it could absorb -- praying that the mind’s eye would never forget this canvas of His majesty. Knowing that there were no words to describe or camera with colors capable of reproducing the portrait of His love expressed through His masterpiece of Autumn.

As I continued down the mountain the tears continued to flow freely for those who could not have the joy of such an experience that I had been blessed with; and prayers that my husband would arrive in time to share it before wind, rain, and time worked their destruction on the perfection of the gift He shared with me today.

Later, when I returned home towards Cherry Grove, I thought that it would be sad going back over the same area and not be able to re-experience that same extreme joy of the earlier ride over the mountain. I thought that surely it had been a once in a life experience to have felt a surge of joy that great. But God was still there, in all his majesty and beauty and once again the tears came unbidden and the joy welled up like an eternal spring in praise to His name as I once again passed over the upper reaches of North Mountain under the afternoon sky.

Later, I wondered if this was how Moses felt at Mt. Sinai in the presence of God, when God revealed Himself to Moses; And I only got a tiny peek, WOW!!! If I remember, Moses only saw God's backside. I'm no Moses...!!! So I don't even rate a backside. But I definitely was in the presence of God today. And Yes, it was truly a moment that "took my breath away".