The Moments In Life That Take Your Breath Away

We got home from Winter Xtreme a couple of hours ago.  After we delivered all our charges safely home, to parents, or to their vehicles we unpacked and headed to our sweet Shirley and Denney Pounds house.  While we were gone their 19 year old granddaughter died tragically in a wreck in the Prattville area.  It broke my heart when Frank told me this at our last bathroom stop on the trip home.  We were in Sweetwater, TN and my heart to think of how they were feeling....and I was not there to hug them both tightly.  We got to their house and hugged them and sat down and ate a wonderful supper of Ms Betty Jeans mac and cheese (to me that is the best comfort food in the world)...and Ms. Jean's chicken casserole. The meal was yummy after three days of pizza.  We left there and went to pick up the dog from my dear friend Marian who graciously kept him while we were gone.  She is a love and Beau loves her dearly.  She spoils him unmercifully.  Today, on our trip back....the kids were asleep in my car....and I was wishing I could join them....Stiles had put my radio on a current country music station (I don't listen to it much....I am into classic rock and contemporary Christian)....but a song came on....and it touched me so I had to post about it.  You will have to wait for my pictures of Gatlinburg until tomorrow.  I came home and found the lyrics....and after you read them I have a story to tell you.  The song is entitled. "Take Your Breath Away" and it is done by George Strait.  It goes like this:

He looks up from second base

Dad's up in the stands

He saw the hit, the run,the slide

There ain't no bigger fan.

In the parking lot

After the game he said

"Dad i thought you had a plane to catch"

He smiled and said "Yeah son, I did."

CHORUS

But life's not the breaths you take

Breathin' in and out

That gets you through the day

Ain't what it's all about

You just might miss the point

Tryin' to win the race

Life's not the breaths you take

But the moments that take your breath away

Fast forward fifteen years

And a thousand miles away

Boy's built a life, he's got a wife

And a baby due today

He hears a voice sayin'

"I made it, son."

He said "I told you dad, you didn't have to come"

He smiles and says, "Yeah, I know you did."

CHORUS

But life's not the breaths you take

Breathin' in and out

That gets you through the day

Ain't what it's all about.

You just might miss the point

Tryin' yo win the race

Life's not the breaths you take

But the moments that take your breath away

BRIDGE

Just like it took my breath

when she was born

Just like it took my breath away

When dad took his last that morn

CHORUS

Life's not the breaths you take

Breathin' in and out

That gets you through the day

Ain't what it's all about

You just might miss the point

If ya don't slow down the pace

Life's not the breaths you take

But the moments that take your breath away.

My mantra is:  Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take....but the moments that take your breath away....and believe me over my 56 years I have had my fair share of moments that have taken my breath away.  The youth choir I sang with, New Dawn went on tour and my cousin Jerry, and my parents appeared at one of my concerts....unexpected.  They didn't have to...but they did.  The day my daughter was born was one of those moments....I looked at the tiny bundle and she reached up and grabbed my finger...and squeezed my heart  The day my daughter graduated from college with her B.S., Masters, and Ed.S.  The day Frank asked me to be his wife.  The day Frank married me.  Franks first sermon at Waverly.  The first time Frank's daughter, Amy,  hugged me....and told me she loved me.  The day that Kat and Brian and Amy and Steven married.  Singing with Still Magnolias.  Singing in the Arbor Praise Band when we did O Happy Day and Shackles for the first time.  When the congregation stood when the Praise Band sang Awesome God.  Opening for George Jones.  Holding Drew, Wheeler, and Jax for the first tme.  Fishing and shooting with my dad.  None of these moments can be bought with money....they are those moments....the ones you live for....the ones that take your breath away.  They may not seem like much to you....but they cannot be purchased and they mean the world to me.  So, as 2010 closes out....I wish you all many of those moments...when your breath is taken away from you.....God Bless You All!