Meditation on Remembering the Sacredness of Breath

I bet people who see me walking or running by think I’m one weird dude, with my frequent sighs, lip flutters, laughs, growls, mmm sounds, and deep breaths.  I bring that up to ask: What’s “sacred” mean to you?  I’m willing to bet it’s special.  It’s not something neglected.  We view sacred things, times, places, and people with a sense of awe and gratitude.  A key part of my life mission of awakening, opening to, and Being LOVE together is giving us eyes to see the sacredness all around us and within us all the time.  With that in mind, and bringing us back to my breathing practices, drink in this reminder from scientist Harlow Shapley:

“Our next breaths, yours and mine, will sample the snorts, sighs, bellows, shrieks, cheers and spoken prayers of the prehistoric and historic past.”

Each of us breathe in what Jesus, the Buddha, and Gandhi breathed out, meaning our spirits are linked.  “Spirit” comes from the Latin spiritus, which, while meaning “breath” and “air”, gets at the animating principle, vigor, and intelligence in us and between us.  This energy, this soul animates and enlivens us.  Our terms “inspiration” and “expiration” come from the same Latin word, making inhales births or beginnings, and exhales deaths or endings.

With this in mind, today I invite us to remember the sacredness of breath.  Name one, a few, or many inhales an invigorating inspiration, literally getting you high on life.  Likewise, dub exhales sendings of loving-kindness to others, as well as letting goes and endings.  Remembering after death comes new life, winter always leads to spring.