Between every breath is space. We forget to stop there, to linger a bit and pay attention to its fullness. It takes a concerted effort to pause there, because we don’t focus on our breathing unless we are reminded to. But in stopping there, and even daring to prolong the space a little, we see that everything of the dominant silence of the universe is pulsating in that suspension.
It’s strange but life seems more active in that space. This is perhaps because we are temporarily suspending our own animation, our own selves, indeed our own self-consumed thoughts which constitute our egos in that moment. We hold ourselves completely in favor of the bigger, more replete silence, one that we don’t often recognize outside of ourselves, and to which we are connected. In the vast space between our breaths, the natural world, our lifeline, steps in and allows us to take the next one.
I love that space. It makes me believe more strongly in the universe. It it without question that we are steeped in something incredible, and that it is only by silencing our internal chatter, if for but for seconds, that we catch a glimpse of it. That silence is linked to goodness, an ineffable magnificence that we miss day in and day out when we fall down our rabbit holes breathing in insensate automaticity. It’s too easy to respire without thinking of our breath, the pause between our breaths, and the meaning of that pause, immense compared to us. Let us pay attention to the miracle of connectedness and meaning that is our respiration in all its stages.
