GASP

What makes you gasp? No, really. Don’t dismiss the question.

While most people associate the gasp with something scary, mine are nearly always a response to something sacred.

Let me share a few of my favorites:

~ Something impossible to describe written exquisitely on paper.

~ The last breath taken as the final goodbye.

~ Ushering someone I love into the next dimension.

~ A sneak peek of that dimension through the tiny crack in the door as they leave.

~ Being caught off guard when outcome surpasses expectation.

~ Life unfolding like a movie scene. 

~ Seeing someone I adore walk around the corner. 

~ Watching a Great Dane run at top speed. 

~ A shooting star.

~ Revelation at something I feel I should have known all along.

~ God’s voice whispered in the space between sleep and awake.

~ Lovemaking.

~ Watching my husband love his sons.

Scientists say the biological act of gasping is part of the flight/fight response in which adrenaline and other hormones are released to prepare the body for action.

Gasping is most-often associated with running away.

But I contend it’s the soul’s way of running toward something familiar…or longed for.

The gasp is sacred.
The human response to life’s most profound moments.

We breathe without thought. And yet our thoughts are one with breath. Like an inaudible concert taking place within our bodies.

Try this.

Breathe in and simultaneously think,  “I am alive.”

Breathe out, “my life has meaning.”

Breathe in, “I am living now for a reason.”

Breath out, “It is not always mine to know why.”

Our first act on our arrival is a gasp—
a biological response based on how we function, an emotional response to what we feel.

What makes you gasp?