The Simple Act of Breathing

One day, I suspect, breath will no longer be a quiet background act. It will be the whole story—the work, the focus, the prayer. What we ignored will become what we fight for. And so, I ask myself now: why wait for crisis to revere the ordinary? The breath—slight, constant, unnoticed—is the oldest companion I have. It has never left me, though I have left it a thousand times in my hurry. If I learn to greet it now, not just as function but as gift, perhaps the world will slow its spinning. Perhaps the ground will feel steadier. Each breath, after all, is a threshold: in, out, begin again. Gratitude doesn’t live in the extraordinary. It lives here, in the quiet inhale I almost forgot.

Justin Foster

There will come a time when the simple act of breathing, once so easily forgotten, so taken for granted, will become the most important, most essential task we have. If I can treat breath like that now, I believe it will slow things down to their proper pace and perspective. In that light, breath is the daily birthplace of gratitude; the rooted continuum of presence. Justin Foster