Let's breathe ....Let's live....
Last night was party night - my husband and 2 other friends shared their birthdays today and we all got together to dance, drink, feast and make merry...it was, as the invitation read, "a reason to celebrate Life"! And boy, we partied hard....gasping, panting towards the wee hours past midnight as we sometimes struggled to catch our breath amidst all that frenzied dancing!!
We celebrated living so much that by the end of the party, we were breathless.....
And then we came home in the early hours of the morning - to hear a shocking news - that one of my husband's close friends, who could have well been in that party last night, had breathed his last this morning .....
He was lying in his bed at home as the mobiles buzzed around Dubai.....still....cold.....breath-less....
A man who loved Life, lived it king-size and suddenly, without any prelude, he was no more.
Untimely....shocking.....saddening....but God has His own ways that none on earth can sway. Maybe He truly loves happy souls and seeks to release them into eternal bliss - sooner rather that later. So I prayed for his soul to rest in peace.....
However, throughout the day, my mind kept returning to the enormous impact of our breath.....that's what it all seemed to be about.... our ability to continue that seemingly small exercise of inhaling and exhaling...something we mostly are not even aware of....something we just take for granted.
Breathing ....we seemed to do everything so that we could continue to breathe.
But are we even conscious of it? Mostly, not, I'd say.
The first time when I was really conscious of my own breathing was when I attempted to learn scuba diving a few years back .......as I dived underwater with nitroxide coming into my nostrils through the pipes and the masks, all I could hear was the sound of my breath ......and it felt like it matched my heart-beat. It was an eerie feeling that I cannot completely explain - like my whole existence weighed on that sound and my whole being co-ordinated to keep it going.....I was alive.....I felt alive ....as long as I heard that reassuring sound...
But is that what its all about really?
Life has however taught me otherwise - now I know that the simple exercise of inhale & exhale only makes me exist....it does not, cannot make me alive.....
Each breath I take pumps my lungs with oxygen .....and I live. That is a gift God has given to each and every one of us ....for however long. He however has left it to us to make each breath matter....He has left it to us to decide and chose how "alive" we want to be, to figure out what we really want....
And as I grow older, I realize I am getting well advanced in my quota of breaths.....I don't know how much longer the road ahead is and honestly, it does not frighten me ...but more and more, I feel the need to make each breath count....I feel the need to live, not just exist ...
So that when my time comes to lay in peace, breath-less, as our friend lays tonight, my soul is no longer restless but happy that I have managed to make as much of my quota of breaths as I possibly could.... that I have loved, lived, given more than taken, touched lives - known and unknown, made a difference - in whatever small way and made the breaths that God had gifted me with, truly worthwhile!
I think its time for many of us who stand in their lives as I do in mine....
Let us all think about it - while we still can, before it gets too late .....let's not just take our breaths for granted ...let's not waste it by simply existing, by focussing on things that do not really matter in the long run. Let's not get short-sighted, but try and figure out what matters most to us and how we can do what counts...... Let's think about how we can be more "alive", how we can truly improve our lives and that of others around us. The roads are a many, and we will need to chose our own. But in the end, let's be increasingly aware of this gift we still receive from God....let's be thankful......and let's make most of them count ....
Amen.
We celebrated living so much that by the end of the party, we were breathless.....
And then we came home in the early hours of the morning - to hear a shocking news - that one of my husband's close friends, who could have well been in that party last night, had breathed his last this morning .....
He was lying in his bed at home as the mobiles buzzed around Dubai.....still....cold.....breath-less....
A man who loved Life, lived it king-size and suddenly, without any prelude, he was no more.
Untimely....shocking.....saddening....but God has His own ways that none on earth can sway. Maybe He truly loves happy souls and seeks to release them into eternal bliss - sooner rather that later. So I prayed for his soul to rest in peace.....
However, throughout the day, my mind kept returning to the enormous impact of our breath.....that's what it all seemed to be about.... our ability to continue that seemingly small exercise of inhaling and exhaling...something we mostly are not even aware of....something we just take for granted.
Breathing ....we seemed to do everything so that we could continue to breathe.
But are we even conscious of it? Mostly, not, I'd say.
The first time when I was really conscious of my own breathing was when I attempted to learn scuba diving a few years back .......as I dived underwater with nitroxide coming into my nostrils through the pipes and the masks, all I could hear was the sound of my breath ......and it felt like it matched my heart-beat. It was an eerie feeling that I cannot completely explain - like my whole existence weighed on that sound and my whole being co-ordinated to keep it going.....I was alive.....I felt alive ....as long as I heard that reassuring sound...
But is that what its all about really?
Life has however taught me otherwise - now I know that the simple exercise of inhale & exhale only makes me exist....it does not, cannot make me alive.....
Each breath I take pumps my lungs with oxygen .....and I live. That is a gift God has given to each and every one of us ....for however long. He however has left it to us to make each breath matter....He has left it to us to decide and chose how "alive" we want to be, to figure out what we really want....
And as I grow older, I realize I am getting well advanced in my quota of breaths.....I don't know how much longer the road ahead is and honestly, it does not frighten me ...but more and more, I feel the need to make each breath count....I feel the need to live, not just exist ...
So that when my time comes to lay in peace, breath-less, as our friend lays tonight, my soul is no longer restless but happy that I have managed to make as much of my quota of breaths as I possibly could.... that I have loved, lived, given more than taken, touched lives - known and unknown, made a difference - in whatever small way and made the breaths that God had gifted me with, truly worthwhile!
I think its time for many of us who stand in their lives as I do in mine....
Let us all think about it - while we still can, before it gets too late .....let's not just take our breaths for granted ...let's not waste it by simply existing, by focussing on things that do not really matter in the long run. Let's not get short-sighted, but try and figure out what matters most to us and how we can do what counts...... Let's think about how we can be more "alive", how we can truly improve our lives and that of others around us. The roads are a many, and we will need to chose our own. But in the end, let's be increasingly aware of this gift we still receive from God....let's be thankful......and let's make most of them count ....
Amen.
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