A Deep Breath…
On this election day, may you find moments of peace through the power of a deep breath.
Whatever your dreams or expectations and however your neighbors have voted, may you find hope and reasons to be grateful in the results.
And if you’re so overwhelmed right now, you can’t even begin to care or think about the election, may your breath guide you to the presence of the Holy One within and all around you.
In the often repeated, but no less profound, words of wisdom of Julian of Norwich:
“All will be well, and all will be well, and every kind of thing shall be well.”
(Mirabai Starr translation)
May you remember, in the words of Eckhart Tolle, that just one conscious breath in and out is meditation. And may you experience the peace and knowledge that all will be well with each deep breath you take.
Three Things
“Take a deep breath and think of the three things you are grateful for, right in this moment.”
―M. J. Ryan
The Bridge
“Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh
Wage Peace
Wage peace with your breath.
Breathe in firemen and rubble,
breathe out whole buildings
and flocks of redwing blackbirds.
Breathe in terrorists
and breathe out sleeping children
and freshly mown fields.
Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.
Breathe in the fallen
and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.
Wage peace with your listening:
hearing sirens, pray loud.
Remember your tools:
flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.
Make soup.
Play music, learn the word for thank you in three languages.
Learn to knit, and make a hat.
Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,
imagine grief
as the outbreath of beauty
or the gesture of fish.
Swim for the other side.
Wage peace.
Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious.
Have a cup of tea… and rejoice.
Act as if armistice has already arrived.
Celebrate today.
—Judyth Hill, September 11, 2001.
May we all wage peace for our loved ones, our country, and our world.
