Have you ever experienced complete and utter joy so that it filled your whole being?
I have experienced this once and it was something that made my soul sing.
It came upon me quite without any warning, took my by surprise
With the force of a rainstorm, black clouds looming before my eyes.

As I walked with my dogs on this amazing and never to be forgotten day
They pulled and they tugged in their usual kind of way.
This experience for their owner was of far greater significance,
For the dogs a chance to be outside and lead the owner a merry dance!

Somehow of the impending rainstorm I felt no fear – this I cannot deny;
Just looked up to heaven, saw great black clouds rushing across the autumn sky
The wind blew and tore with a force greater than any human strength,
We were at its mercy and we must walk the whole field’s length.

The rain whipped and slashed at my face with sharp needles of icy pain,
Such a feeling of being alive and at the mercy of nature I may never feel again.
You can welcome such a pain when it means that you are able
To take of the marvelous bounty freely given at nature’s table.

How do I begin to describe this feeling of absolute joy?
Human words aren’t enough in a description to employ,
But I do know that it is so intense that every fiber of being that makes you
At the same time exhilarated, but totally at peace, life’s palette’s universal hue.

This absolute joy may only be for moments in the whole span of a life,
But I tried to hold on to this moment so that the most I could derive
And I cried with happiness and delight not wanting it to leave, but remain;
The memory of its intensity, knowing through this life it would help me to sustain.

Nature’s total power that cannot be imitated or copied by mere men,
When experienced in all its intensity makes you never see life the same again.
The privilege to experience and know that deep in your heart,
The One who created nature in all its magnificence made us all at the very start.