Breathe out

Sometimes an everyday sight, sound, song or phrase can take my breath away. That split moment when marrow and bone are separated and the truth is poured into me. A glimpse too hard to capture becomes an event ever longed to be repeated.

In our Mass there is a moment when heaven touches earth, almost a spiritual horizon line where truth, beauty and humanity intersect, when the angels silence and wait as each and every person on earth living or dead is allowed to receive and become one with our Lord.

These are sacred moments, too valuable not to be shared and too special to be trampled on. How can I explain what it is I am desperate to share without making it sound ordinary? Isn't it in the ordinary that I am able to not only express but to connect with other people.

From out of the ordinary I have learned to respect and honor many of life's lessons. The first time in the morning when the shower water begins to run too cold at first. Then there it is, an almost imperceptible change in sound when the cold water rushing through the pipes begins to merge with the hot, that's the signal to test the temperature and step into the waters spray. How do I know this? How has my ear become trained to perceive something almost below ordinary, when I fear I can't hear Gods whispers. Is it just an ordinary lesson in repetition? Is it taught in times of total quiet and solitude with nothing else going on.... so ordinary, and yet amazing!

There is an everyday loveliness that comes and then slips away, often where I never notice. To see or experience these moments I not only have to ask God to show them too me, but I must be ready for their impact in my life, ready to implement, to have some effective integration tactics. God will have to be there for me then again, always, as I can not do even the ordinary alone.