what does it feel like to be alive?

:what does it feel like to be alive?: living, you stand under a waterfall. You leave the sleeping shore deliberately; you shed your dusty clothes, pick your barefoot way over the high, slippery rocks, hold your breath, choose your footing, and step into the waterfall. The hard water pelts your skull, bangs in bits on your shoulders and arms. The strong water dashes down beside you and you feel it along your calves and thighs rising roughly back up to the roiling surface, full of bubbles that slide up your skin or break on you at full speed. Can you breath here? Here where the force is greatest and only the strength of your neck holds the river out of your face. Yes, you can breath here. You can learn to live like this.

annie dillard