BREATHE, JUST BREATHE

“We live in deeds, not years: In thoughts not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart throbs. He most lives Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.”

Aristotle

I forget to breathe, let alone breathe deeply.  I go from project to project, task to task, from need to need, from stress to stress. And before I realize it, I am breathless. My body pays the price.

I feel certain that in the midst of thick chaos, someone, somewhere has told you to 'take a deep breath.'  I read recently that when you are feeling deep stress, you breathe very shallow breaths.  And your body miraculously compensates for this lack of oxygen by making you sigh.  Your body literally is forcing you to take a deep breath.

I can only speak for myself, but I can tell you that I forget to breathe. I live breathless! Frank Lloyd Wright said, "Space is the breath of art."  I don't know that my writing is art, but what I do know is that I have to make space to write.  Writing is the kind of thing that takes my breath away.  Sometimes I don't know where the words come from and sometimes I absolutely know.

Writing allows me to sit and to breathe. It allows my inner self to be heard.  It heals where I hurt.  It awakens my soul and puts my stress to rest.

Every minute we are alive and every breath we take is a gift.  I am certain you are familiar with the magnet stuck on so many refrigerator doors, "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away." We read it and like it, but how many times have you thought about what moments take your breath away?

What takes your breath away? What is your breath of life ?  Is it stress or moments of pure bliss, rhapsodies, sunrises, grass between your toes, an ice cream cone or a snow flake, a prayer?  Or do you find you simply take in air but find you are not alive?

"Time is strange. A moment can be as short as a breath, or as long as eternity."

~Ardel Wray

I have experienced moments that were as short as a breath and will last a lifetime and never be forgotten.  I would not be the same person had I not been blessed with them.  They are precious and timeless and forever. And they are mine and mine alone.  They may not pass my way again, but I had them.  I think of those who have never had their moment.

So for me as long as there is breath in my body I will try to not rush, to not fret, to not hurry from stress to stress.  I will try to breath and remember the moments that really have counted and the moments yet to come. The moments that have taken my breath away. The moments that I will treasure for the rest of my life.

You have a choice. Live or die. Every breath is a choice. Every minute is a choice. To be or not to be.

~Chuck Palahniuk

You are never promised another breath.  Find the joy, find the brass ring, find the moments that take your breath away. 

My wish for you is that you live in complete and total  utter amazement!

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