The Measure of a Life

“Life is not measured by the breaths we breathe, but by the moments that take our breath away.” Author unknown

Think back to the moments that have taken your breath away. You probably have some major life events that took your breath away—a wedding, a birth, a special occasion that took months of planning. In reality, however, how many of the most special moments in your life took just a few seconds and then they were gone from sight, but never from your heart. In my life, while I have enjoyed the big things that make my life richer, it has been those sixty second spaces of time that have given me the rich life that I enjoy. My four year old last week cuddling up beside me last week, and saying, “I love you.” A special email sent from my husband. A note from my teenage daughter. A smile from my fourteen year old. An innocent bedtime prayer, “Help Mommy to be good” from my little boy.

I have experienced these breathtaking moments in nature—my first glimpse of the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone in the Spring, seeing the Acropolis in Athens at night--but most of those moments have involved people-- people that have invested less than sixty seconds in my life. Sometimes those moments have been made when I take a fraction of a moment to notice the people around me—pudgy baby feet sticking out from under a blanket, standing outside a bedroom door and listening to little boys talking, watching my little girl play with her baby doll.

If it takes so little to remember so much, why don’t we do it more often? Too often we’re measuring life by the breaths we breathe-- how much we can do, and how much money we can bring home before the day’s breaths are past. We’re busy seeing how successful we can become while we can still breathe, and forget to make those moments that will outlive us when our breathing has finally ended. Savor the moments today before they are gone!