What Takes Your Breath Away?
You know those endless emails that you get from friends and acquaintances? I automatically delete those that look like chain emails. I am not interested in a miracle that is sure to happen if I pass an email to seven or 10 or 20 people. I do not believe that Microsoft or Yahoo or HP will give me money for forwarding certain messages.
Once in a while I come across things that are worth reading and passing along. Sometimes, a phrase or a message actually inspires me. One of them is “Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by what takes your breath away.”
What takes our breath away? What does it really mean? Common definition is “to be so surprised or awed by something that it makes you hold your breath” – thus it “takes your breath away.”
I was just talking to my friend Agie on the phone one night and she was telling me about a card her daughter sent her – a simple colored paper she folded and where she wrote how much she loves and misses her mommy. Now - that takes one’s breath away.
Driving from Santa Fe to Albuquerque one summer, I saw the most beautiful and clearest rainbow ever – that took my breath away. Danielle, a precocious 3-year old who kept repeating one afternoon that she is my sweetheart – she took my breath away. Kiara, my two year-old niece who after I kissed her goodnight and told her I love her replied “I love you, too, Tita Phlor” that, too, took my breath away.
The first time Lita saw the Grand Canyon, she cried and was speechless at the awesome majesty right before her eyes. That took her breath away. The first time Cora saw her grandson Ethan who took after her – that took her breath away. Venice Beach, watching the blue ocean waves as they tumble on to the sand with Keane playing on her IPOD -- that took Gwennie’s breath away. Caught in a snowstorm and frolicking in the knee-deep snow in Manhattan – that took our breaths away.
In the context of romance, do you remember what took your breath away? An old picture of a loved one, with that same look that made your heart leap then – and still does now, that takes your breath away. One look, one touch, one kiss, one voice, one song, one dance, one memory. Ah, wasn’t it just wonderful to be caught in such a moment? Isn’t it exhilarating to savor the feelings – the happiness -- the genuine joy -- once something or someone “takes your breath away?”
How much do we allow ourselves this simple pleasure of being awed and taken by the moment? How open are our hearts to the small packages of happiness that await us? It doesn't really cost us anything. All it takes is the right attitude. Let us be like children and free ourselves of the biases, agendas and prejudice -- just take life as it comes and accept things as they happen. We will be pleasantly surprised.
If “Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by what takes your breath away,” I probably am one of the “most lived” persons on earth. How about you?
10/08/06
Once in a while I come across things that are worth reading and passing along. Sometimes, a phrase or a message actually inspires me. One of them is “Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by what takes your breath away.”
What takes our breath away? What does it really mean? Common definition is “to be so surprised or awed by something that it makes you hold your breath” – thus it “takes your breath away.”
I was just talking to my friend Agie on the phone one night and she was telling me about a card her daughter sent her – a simple colored paper she folded and where she wrote how much she loves and misses her mommy. Now - that takes one’s breath away.
Driving from Santa Fe to Albuquerque one summer, I saw the most beautiful and clearest rainbow ever – that took my breath away. Danielle, a precocious 3-year old who kept repeating one afternoon that she is my sweetheart – she took my breath away. Kiara, my two year-old niece who after I kissed her goodnight and told her I love her replied “I love you, too, Tita Phlor” that, too, took my breath away.
The first time Lita saw the Grand Canyon, she cried and was speechless at the awesome majesty right before her eyes. That took her breath away. The first time Cora saw her grandson Ethan who took after her – that took her breath away. Venice Beach, watching the blue ocean waves as they tumble on to the sand with Keane playing on her IPOD -- that took Gwennie’s breath away. Caught in a snowstorm and frolicking in the knee-deep snow in Manhattan – that took our breaths away.
In the context of romance, do you remember what took your breath away? An old picture of a loved one, with that same look that made your heart leap then – and still does now, that takes your breath away. One look, one touch, one kiss, one voice, one song, one dance, one memory. Ah, wasn’t it just wonderful to be caught in such a moment? Isn’t it exhilarating to savor the feelings – the happiness -- the genuine joy -- once something or someone “takes your breath away?”
How much do we allow ourselves this simple pleasure of being awed and taken by the moment? How open are our hearts to the small packages of happiness that await us? It doesn't really cost us anything. All it takes is the right attitude. Let us be like children and free ourselves of the biases, agendas and prejudice -- just take life as it comes and accept things as they happen. We will be pleasantly surprised.
If “Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by what takes your breath away,” I probably am one of the “most lived” persons on earth. How about you?
10/08/06
posted by PHLOR TORREJOS at 5:43 PM
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