Breath. You don’t happen without it. Our bodies make it happen and require it to happen – syncing with the life that we are given with each sunrise. When you open your eyes each day. Breath. When you start the car, and it doesn’t turn over. Breath. When you wait in a long queue. Breath. When you find yourself up at 11pm pacing the halls because you can’t sleep, breath. When you are running in the heat of the day, breath.

It happens to you and through you. It’s magnificent and powerful and sacred.

My year began with no obvious reprieve for the tasks at hand. Not much different to how last year ended. Biting off more than I can chew with a constant feeling of there not being much choice in the matter! A bunch of things that were out of my control brought with them a “new normal” of busyness that was neither welcomed nor begrudged. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. I find that a woman’s capacity to serve in many areas of her life goes unrecognised at times and not by others, but often by the woman doing the hefty work.

I’ve tried to make myself more aware of how much I am taking on and what things I can lay down, but after 40 years, I’m still on my  ‘plates’”. The difference this time has not been in the task list itself, for that hasn’t changed in length, but in one notable thing that has carried me from one day to the next. I’ve noticed my breath.

Too simple?

Not for me. I’ve seen breathing differently lately. It feels more than the process of filling my lungs with oxygen and dispelling the carbon dioxide from them.

When I breathe, I live, and I have my being.

When I breathe, it tells its own story.

When I breathe, it reminds me about Spirit.

Breath is like a bridge. It takes you from one moment to the next and lately it has reminded me of the simplest of messages. That God gave me this breath and I am nothing without it. He is Almighty and gives me life – breathing His Spirit into my circumstance, into my moments of peace, into my everything.

“The breath of the Almighty gives me life.”

Job 33:4