Take My Breath Away

She sat hunched in her chair, shoulders rounded, my co-worker who was feeling the stress and the weight of it all. Just breathe, I said. A tiny chuckle rose from her weary spirit. I know, it gets stuck in your chest and you're just sucking air. Breathe anyway. Another miniature laugh. It's hard to do, when inhaling becomes more chest heaving and abdomen weighs heavy, like yoga never existed. Scanning my digital picture frame on desk, I practiced what I had preached. Shoulders dropped an inch and elfin smile played on my lips.

 

Daughter called today and her breath lodged too. Hard life trembling her hands, they shook she said and her text wept into my palm.

 

 

The waves, they calm, they crash, the salty air is His and he weeps too. Sunsets and play, castles and seagulls, strolling lovers and dogs, inhale down to quaking toes.

 

 

"A man without prayer, is like a tree without roots." Pope Pius X11.

And we pray without ceasing, breathe those ragged breaths, post notes as reminders to do the things that only self can do when life gets undone. Breathe. Pray. Breathe.

 

"Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done." C.S. Lewis.

Every breath is a second chance, a chance to do right, say right and just be OK.

 

"Every time we encourage someone we give them a transfusion of courage." Charles Swindoll.

Some days, taking that next breath is a grand feat and muscling up enough courage to Just Be OK is grit hard. Maybe virgin breaths catch up to each other, after time of practicing being OK, and helping others be OK too. A castle built inside the soul, a plethora of breaths counted as gifts, each one caught by the ecstatic, life-giving Beautiful. All the things in life that simply take the breath away.