Inspire - to Breathe

Drip drops of rain pattered on my windshield. I careened around the corners of mountains, twisting the steering wheel, lost in thought. Music blasted from speakers and every so often I tapped my thigh in rhythm.

The rain softened, then faded away and the road became dry. The landscape was enshrouded in a white mist. I turned a bend and suddenly - the world lit up with gold. The mist shifted and moved at the feet of the mountains like a deep ocean, the sun a halo of gold just beyond the hills. My eyes widened.

"Oh. My. God." I said to my Jeep. I turned off the music. 

I picked up my phone camera and pulled over on the side of the road. Cars whooshed past. I took pictures, but this little electronic device did not do the light, the experience, the moment justice. How could it? How? 

I drove back onto the road, and in several miles the world unfolded in a magnificent display of glory. The sun smiled brilliantly, the hills glowing russet and emerald and sage. In the valleys, the clouds danced like golden rivers too joyful to obey gravity. 

"Oh my god. This is amazing. I can't believe this. I'm going to die." 

But then I fell silent. Those words did not encompass what was transpiring in my heart, the deepest essence of how my soul seemed to be at peace, to breathe, to be inspired by the glory of God. 

Unbidden, the words of one of my favorites songs came to my mind: "Mama mana mandire...." May You reside in the temple of my heart.

.

I sang this song on repeat for over half an hour. I got to witness the sky become pink, rose, azure, and fade into the velvet deep blue studded with diamond stars. 

My Lord. You are so beautiful. How unfathomable that you are so great, encompassing the magnificence of the world with a spark of your splendor. And even more magnificent is that You have taken up residence within my heart. Although my heart is poorly tended, messy, and dark, You are so patient, so kind. You are happy to observe, to always be there as my best friend, unconditionally. I pray that one day you shine within the sky of my heart like you did that day.