resplendent

re*splend*ent

adjective
/ri'splendent/

1. Attractive and impressive through being richly colorful or sumptuous

2. Glorious: having great beauty and splendor

synonyms: shining, bright, brilliant, refulgent, luminous, radiant, splendid, shiny, lustrous, sparkling, effulgent

To merely say the word brings about a sense of the delicious. Resplendent dances on your tongue, leaving you with a smile. Often I wonder if somehow I have powdered sugar left on my lips from simply speaking the word. Go ahead and try it. See?

Imagine seeing something so beautiful that simple adjectives seem inferior. Sitting on my magical patio attached to my former home, the way the light hit East Tennessee was resplendent. Or that special smile devoted to that special someone...being in the presence of whom makes her glow; her countenance was that of utter resplendence.

I have heard music that was so beautiful it was sumptuous, so sumptuous it was resplendent. I have been in churches that are radiant not only in their structure, but in their purpose: housing the children of God in resplendent stained glass windows, splendid archways, and lustrous light.

I have seen bodies move brilliantly in dance; choreographed resplendence. I have had my breath stolen by pirouettes, heart jump-started by hyper-extended backs, pulse quickened by limbs akimbo as if in flight.

The face of my mother before the pain claimed her. The giggle of a man who would always be really a boy during his short stay on this earth. The sound of my nieces and nephews playing. Saturday mornings in my father's rusty-red pick up truck. The smells of my grandmother's kitchen. The feel of a house teeming with lost souls who somehow found a home. The words of Buddy Wakefield. Hearing the voice of my Saviour and knowing it was him with no real way to explain it. Standing in front of a Van Goh. Anything sung by Adele. New York at Christmas. East Tennessee in the fall. Indiana at sunrise. Broadway. The Ocean. Life, at its best.

Simply resplendent.