Having committed to Reverb10 with hundreds of others (including bloggers I consider to be mentors and friends) I’m writing for 31 days straight… the entire month of December. We’re reflecting on 2010 and what we’d like to manifest in 2011…
Today's Prompt: Moment. Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors).

Ok…so… how can I possibly pick one moment? Really?! It wouldn’t do me or the reverb project any justice… So I’m choosing a whole day!
Two years ago my dad, sister and I started a tradition of going to the Telluride Jazz festival together. Dad’s been going for years and I have dear friends in the valley so it just made sense for us to go and share the time together. Not to mention that my dad and sister and I have had this connection over jazz since J and I were tiny. “Daddy,” I asked him one afternoon in the car, “Who’s playing this song?” “Grover,” he told me. “Grover?!” My eyes lit up. “I know him!” Laughing he looked back at J and I in our car seats and said, “Not that Grover. This musician is named Grover Washington.” (I wouldn’t know anything about jazz if it wasn’t for my dad.)
So we’re in Telluride this August for our 2nd annual father-daughter trip. And it’s raining… A LOT. I mean  torrential downpour off and on for three days. But Sunday the sun came out… a little. We’re listening to the Gospel Hummingbirds, the Chico State Jazz Xpress, Jackie Ryan, Charlie Hunter and the Greyboy Allstars. And we’re taking in the sites of town park, reading the New York Times and just blissing out.
(For people that haven’t been to Telluride, it's sort of difficult to do justice to the beautyof it in words. It is a box canyon with a bridal veil waterfall. The town itself is full of old Victorian homes and sandstone buildings on Colorado Ave that house incredible Sushi restaurants, great bars, ski and fishing shops, banks and concert venues.)
Sitting in the park looking up at the mountainside, alternately through the rain, sunshine and low hanging clouds, listening to arguably some of the best music I’ve ever heard *live* was an experience I’ll never forget. I could feel the rain dripping down my back off the umbrella. And I could feel the bass beating in my chest.
And I could feel the joy in my heart when we decided to call it, just a little bit early, to go back and shower for dinner at La Marmotte.
If there is anything I love more in the world than music it is food… and wine. I’d always wanted to eat at La Marmotte and we were not disappointed. From the first bite of the rich, buttery flavors of traditional French cooking I was in heaven.
I can’t tell you exactly what I ate or how it tasted. Just like I can’t tell you what it smelled like… other than butter… and rain.
I cannot tell you what wine we drank or how smooth the espresso with dessert was.
I can’t tell you what songs I heard. Or accurately describe the color of the Telluride sky at sunset.
I was too busy living it to take notes.
I was, for a brief period, actually living in the moment. Not thinking about what else I needed to do or where else I needed to be.
I was present… totally and completely.

I was… ALIVE.