breath

For All That Is Our Life

Spirit of Life, Source of all Love:

In this place that we dearly love,
this place where there are forests and grasslands
and beautiful wild rivers,
this place where our neighbors are
coyotes and ravens and hawks and deer
as well as human persons,
fire is raging out of control.
So many have lost everything,
including their lives.
It is a hard and terrible time,
and yet it is nearly Thanksgiving.

For what do we give thanks,
if everything we have known and loved is gone,
burned, nothing but ash and rubble?
For what do we give thanks
when the very air we breathe
is full of the remains of others,
and their homes,
and all the life around them?

Let us give thanks that we are alive.

We are alive in this moment
in our own body
here on Earth.

If we made it out of the fire,
we give thanks that we are alive
to mourn and to grieve,
to remember the moments when
we were not sure we would make it,
and then that moment when
we knew we had.
We give thanks that we have this chance
to start over,
to receive kindness from others,
to build a new life
different from the one before.

We give thanks that we are alive.

If we are watching the fire from afar,
we give thanks that our home still stands
and our friends and neighbors are safe
and that we are breathing at all,
even through a mask:

We give thanks for our breath.

We give thanks for the coming rain,
which will fall on our faces,
and mingle with our tears,
and cool and wet the parched ground,
and put out the fires and soothe our fears.

We give thanks for the rain.

We give thanks for You, the force of life
that will rise greening
through the deepest ash
at the slightest touch of rain.
We give thanks for this chance
to ourselves rise from the ashes
as new beings
alive with love.

For all that is our life,
even now,
we give thanks.

Blessed be.

The Breath of Our Bodies

Spirit of Life,
You who body forth as our starry universe
and this shimmering, blue-green planet:

Now begins our hot blue and gold time
when the air smells of dry grass and live oaks
the wild birds are raising their young
and the tomato plants begin a mad rush
toward the sun.

Help us know you as the breath of our bodies.

Help us know you as the life force
that fills apricots and cherries
with the juice that delights our tongues.

Help us also know you as the force
that dries the petals of wildflowers
and scatters them, dead, along the ground.

Help us know you as a love so large
that in all beginnings,
and in all endings,
we are ever safely held.

Help us rest in that love,
as we look with open eyes
upon the suffering within us
and all around us.

Fill us with the loving kindness we need
to relieve this suffering.

Help us breathe your love and peace
into our scarred and beautiful world.

Blessed be.

Present Moment (After Thich Nhat Hanh)

Spirit of Life,
Great immensity of love
in which we live and move and have our being:

Now is the time of great winds dipping into the trees
and stirring them into life;
of fast-moving clouds and sudden showers
of snow and rain;
of squirrels coming back to the ground.

Now is the early spring.

How we long for flowers and green leaves.
How we long for fragrance and color.
How we long to shed layers of coats and scarves
and feel the warm sun on our skin.
But nothing we can do will hurry the season—
life happens on its own time.

So let us let go of our longing for the future.
Let us come into the present moment.
Let us be aware of our breath.

Breathing in, let us calm our bodies.
Breathing out, let us smile.
Breathing in, we calm our bodies.
Breathing out, we smile.

With awareness of our breath
we awaken to this moment
and the beauty all around us.

Blessed be.

(With thanks to Thich Nhat Hanh.)

Your Cleansing Breath

Spirit of Life,
Great immensity of love that birthed the stars
and washes through our bodies
with every beat of our hearts:

Now is the time when fall winds blow
singing through the pines
whispering through the oaks
rustling through the grass.

Open us to your cleansing breath.
Let your moving, changing winds
clear away our fear and confusion,
leaving us fresh of heart.

Let us then be ready to do Your work:
to bind each other’s wounds,
to share all that we have,
to mend the tears in the web of life.

Blessed be.

Ever Safely Held

Spirit of Life, source of all love,
You who body forth as our starry universe
and this luminous, blue-green planet:

Help us know you as the breath of our bodies.

As we mark the end of summer
and the beginning of autumn,
help us know you as the life force
that fills grapes and pears
with the liquid sunshine
that delights our tongues.

Help us also know you
as the force that turns green leaves yellow
and starts their slow spinning to the ground.

Help us know you as a love so large
that in all beginnings,
and in all endings,
we are ever safely held.

Help us rest in that love,
as we look with open eyes
upon the suffering within us and all around us.

Fill us with the loving kindness we need
to relieve this suffering.

Help us to breathe your love and peace
into our scarred and beautiful world.

Amen.

The Greatest Mystery We Know

For Marcia

Spirit of Life, Breath of our Breath:

Now is the time when new cottonwood leaves
tremble in the breeze,
ferns and lilies decorate the forests,
and lush peonies and roses
fill the air with sweet fragrance.

How can it be that this riot of green,
these extravagant petals,
will fade and fall,
scattered on the wind?

How can it be that one moment,
a loved one breathes,
and the next they do not?

And how can it be
that the molecules of all the departed
are then gathered into new life?

This is the mystery.
This is the greatest mystery we know.
May our whole beings be filled with awe
at the mystery of life.

Blessed be.

A Healing Meditation

Healing Meditation ¹

(To be read by a caregiver to the person who is ill or injured. Read with pauses between each line. Other instructions to the reader are in parentheses.)

Sit comfortably or lie down.

Close your eyes.

Now, yawn five times, sighing as you exhale. (The first time, say something like: “If you have to fake it, that’s fine; usually a real yawn will arise after a couple of fake ones.”)

Now, take 10 belly breaths: Slowly inhale air down into your belly, pushing your abdominal muscles out as you inhale, the way a baby breathes. Slowly exhale. (Help count ten breaths.)

Now, breathe normally.

Pay attention to how the air feels as it enters your body…

and how it feels as it exits.

As you breathe,

imagine you are floating

on an infinite ocean of love

All the love of your family, and friends,

all the love there is

and ever has been:

an infinite ocean of love.

As you breathe in, imagine the light of this love entering your body.

It is the force of life, and healing, made visible.

It is a bright…warm…light.

It swirls into your lungs…

your bloodstream…

and every cell.

The bright…warm…healing light

bathes…and cleanses…

every cell of your body.

It flows in…

and washes all the fear…and pain…

away.

All the things you don’t need.

Let them go.

Let everything you don’t need

be flushed away.

Breathe them out.

Breathe in healing light…

Breathe out all you don’t need.

Breathe in healing light…

Breathe out all you don’t need.

Let the healing light

and your breath

do their work.

Breathe in healing light…

Breathe out all you don’t need.

As the warm, tender force of life and love

swirls through your body,

washing,

cleansing,

and healing

every cell,

whisper “Thank you.”

Thank you for this life

Thank you for this beauty

Thank you for this love.

Thank you.

And now breathe in.

Breathe out.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Now…as you float

on the ocean of

infinite love

let your consciousness gather.

Breathe in

Breathe out

Breathe in

Breathe out

Return slowly to this place

and this time.

Take your time.

Be gentle with yourself.

Breathe in

Breathe out

Breathe in

Breathe out.

Blessed be.

¹ This meditation is particularly suitable for humanists and atheists, but can be used for anyone.