Lord, That I May See

Air is like God. The presence of something so life-giving, elemental, and yet invisible becomes often forgotten or overlooked, and taken for granted. And yet, air possesses the ability to change so much, to enhance to a point of unbearable beauty the way I see and feel and taste the world around me. Colors are brighter. Blue is crystal. Green is crisper. Sunshine is cleaner and the warmth of the rays is kinder and more caressing. Breezes are defined and somehow touch me with a precise and urgent loveliness. The breaths I take are fresher, the oxygen fuller, almost sweet in my nose and mouth. The beauty of every blade of grass and swirl of wind and wisp of cloud is crying out with the loveliness of existence and presence. "We exist and we are good." Air. Without it we could not live. It "gives" us our existence. On days like this, when the air is so clean that I can see and feel and taste with greater beauty the world around me, I feel that air is like God. He...

This morning, laying together on the bed, I soaked up my baby. Her smell, her softness, her little breaths, her precious, oh-so-momentary piece of stillness in a day full of motion. One year old . . . One year ago at the time that I write this I was holding a tiny newborn, being rolled to the recovery room in a rosy haze of tiredness, weakness and love. I was in love for the second time. This time with a tiny, stirring bundle with quiet hands and big beautiful eyes. Thank you God for my little girl. Thank you for the gift of this day, the gift of the cosy, frozen-in-time moment with Turtle (and her "softie"!) on my bed. Thank you for the budding maple branches, dark against the white-gray sky and the birds conversing in springtime chirps. There on the bed, that closeness, her lying against me, I felt that if I could just have moments like this every now and again I could do anything. I was full and happy -- the comfortableness, the silent peace, resting in the smell and t...