Take my breath away...

In the end, it's not going to matter how many breaths you took, but how many moments took your breath away.- shing xiong The average respiration rate for a person at rest is about 16 breaths per minute. This means on average, we breathe about 960 breaths an hour ; 23,040 breaths a day; 8,409,600 a year. That means I have taken over 445 billion breaths in my lifetime so far. But what do they account for? To breathe is to exist. But I want more than an existence. I want to remember the lifetime of memories I stored up from my childhood that I can take out at any time and think about with fondness and love. I want to remember how it felt the first time I looked my husband in the eyes and felt that "Oh my" feeling that you get when you know he's the ONE. I want to remember when they placed my new born twins in my arms and I looked down and felt that tug on my heart strings that said, "They are mine...forever". I want to remember that thrill of the most beautiful words in the world, "Mom, how would you like to be a grandmother". Four times, I've had my breath taken away as each new born grandchild was placed in my arms for the first time. I want to remember all the "Mamaw, can I's" and the "Mamaw, I did's" and every single precious moment I get to spend with my precious grandchildren. I want to remember the first time I saw the mountains in all their grandeur and fall beauty. I want to remember the awe I felt as I looked on and thought "How can you look at this and NOT believe that God does exist. I want to remember the first trip to the beach as I stared at all that beautiful water and sand, thinking about how somewhere on the other side of all that water, another lady with her children is staring at that same water and marveling that there is a whole other world across that sea. I want to remember the soft fallen snow that came in 1993 when the blizzard dumped 23" on us and how beautiful it was. How for that one moment in time, the world stood still. I want to remember the sound of the mighty eagle as he glides over the river out back and scoops up a fish for super. I want to remember the beautiful colors in my backyard at the bird feeder. The deep emerald of the hummingbird, the brilliant red of the cardinal, the yellow in the small finches, the bright blue of the bluebird, the soft gloss of black and white on the chickadee. So you see, life is NOT about the number of breaths we take, but it truly consists of the number of moments that take our breath away. So don't just live, live for those special moments. Make each and everyone of your breaths count. Love your family, enjoy the world around you and take time to make that special moment that will live in your heart forever.