everybody dies but not everybody lives

On Wednesday and Thursday mornings, I volunteer at a local elementary school's morning reading program. Normally the drive is as you would expect: 7:15am, sort of light out, some traffic on the road, to-go coffee in the cupholder to aid in the process of fully waking up.

Last Wednesday was different.

There was still traffic on the road, still coffee for me to drink, still 7:15am, but there was a stillness. I remember it being warm enough outside that my car window was cracked to feel the morning air. I was driving northeast on Gravois when Nicki Minaj's "Moment 4 Life" came on the radio. I love Nicki Minaj. I love this song. And it was just then that I got to my favorite part of Gravois - when the arch emerges from behind that incredible church on the corner of Lynch. The whole downtown skyline in front of me was shrouded in fog. It was so thick I couldn't see the top of the arch.

"I wish that I could have this moment for life, for life, for life. 'Cause in this moment I just feel so alive, alive, alive."

It was a perfect moment, captured in my mind forever.

In that moment I thanked God for bringing me here because I love St. Louis.