Life Comes One Breath at a Time

So eager for summer to begin, and now how quickly it has seemed to flow by! This summer, sometimes, while out riding on the Harley, I found myself yearning for a spot that was just a few miles up the road. Of course, that kind of longing exchanged illusion for reality. Pinning for the perceived beauty just a few miles up the road, I was lost to the beauty that currently enveloped me.

Rumi puts it this way:

Some persons, relying on the promise of “tomorrow,”
have wandered for years around that door,
but “tomorrow” never comes.

Expectation has a gravity all its own that constantly seeks to pull us from the orbit of this moment into some illusory tomorrow. Yet, spiritually, it is so important to maintain our awareness of this moment. Life is made up of only one breath—the one you are taking at this moment.

Fall is an exciting time at St. Mary’s, and I look forward to it. The picnic where we get back together and share our tales and experiences of the summer, the Pumpkin Patch and All Saints, the Auction Dinner and Thanksgiving, the Christmas pageant and Christmas, are all out there waiting to become new memories. Those memories will have a shining quality if I allow myself to live into the experiences moment by moment.

Living that way, I don’t wander for years seeking something driven out of reach by expectation. Living that way, I can be more present to what is going on within me, which calls me to be more present to others who share their moments with me. Living that way, avoiding applying the heavy burdens of expectation and validation, I participate in community. This is the way of intimacy, because there is nothing more precious we can share with each other and with those we serve than the moment of this breath.

Usually I’d catch myself in my yearning for that spot a few miles ahead and realize that I was missing something—life! Life happens right now, and in that moment of realization, the world around me becomes vibrant with color, texture, sound, and divine beauty.

Let us live together into the many exciting and exceptional moments that wait for our arrival, one breath at a time.

Joel t