Ziggurat and the Sacred Sangre de Cristo Mountains
Breathing has its own rhythm. Breath comes in ebb and flow. Through breathing you come into the rhythm with your self. The generosity of air allows each object to merge and to be. John O’Donohue
Today is (drumroll please!) ‘Take a Breath Wednesday’! Yeah, I know today’s post is a bit late in coming and you had no forewarning about the significance of this day, so heck, let’s make tomorrow ‘Take a Breath Thursday’. Or how about ‘Take a Breath Week’?
Here in the U.S., we’ve just completed a string of days that have been given names, the majority aimed at our consumer habits. After last Thursday’s Thanksgiving, we woke to ‘Black Friday’ (Thankfully, Muse restrains me from commentary about the name and what it’s become in our culture.) which others have tagged ‘Green Friday’ or ‘buy nothing Friday’, a day to be in Nature and avoid the consumer craziness. Following that ‘Small Business Saturday’ and ‘Cyber Monday’, and, lastly, ‘Giving Tuesday’.
Together Muse and I wonder why the Friday after Thanksgiving isn’t Giving Friday. But our priorities and our thinking are not especially aligned with the priorities of commerce. We value community and we value coherence, unity within and unity without. Or as John O’Donohue suggests coming into the rhythm with your self.
Your Self. Conscious breathing takes us to a place of awareness and a state of being where heart and brain can align. A state of being that brings us peace within, peace to support us in navigating this chaotic, heart-wrenching time in a world where peace may seem out of reach. When head and heart are aligned, we know the truth of our interconnectedness with one another and with all life. We open ourselves to experience the interconnectedness that erases the false boundaries of nations, skin color, language, religion, cultural practices, political views and all that is designed to divide us. All Life.
Breathe and you know that you are alive.
Breathe and you know that all is helping you.
Breathe and you know that you are the world.
Breathe and you know that the flower is breathing too.
Breathe for yourself and you breathe for the world.
Breathe in compassion and breathe out joy.
Breathe and be one with the air that you breathe.
Breathe and be one with the river that flows.
Breathe and be one with the earth you tread.
Breathe and be one with the fire that glows.
Breathe and you break the thought of birth and death.
Breathe and you see that impermanence is life.
Breathe for your joy to be steady and calm.
Breathe for your sorrow to flow away.
Breathe to renew every cell in your blood.
Breathe to renew the depths of consciousness.
Breathe and you dwell in the here and now.
Breathe and all you touch is new and real. – Thich Nhat Hanh
Take a good, deep breath and let’s make EVERYday a day to breathe in the truth of our humanity!
Full Moon in the Trees