This Single Breath - Poem
While you were busy being busy,
quietly and steadily,
without a conscious thought or effort,
fresh air entered into your body.
Holding you
nourishing you
keeping you alive:
this single breath.
With this one inhale
trillions of air molecules filled your lungs,
to for a short period of time
become part of you.
Of your body,
your being,
your life force.
So that you may run,
grow,
think,
play,
heal,
and dance.
This single breath.
Do you ever wonder...
About its journeys made,
the places dwelled,
the shapes inhabited?
Who was this breath
Before it became you?
This single breath.
On our pale blue dot
the tiny building blocks of life
travel wide and far,
constantly changing shape.
What is now you,
perhaps once was
a tomato plant in the garden,
a great king,
a penguin on an ice sheet,
an ancient redwood tree,
a tiny piece of moss on the pavement,
a microbe at the bottom of the sea,
a dinosaur roaming the plains,
or Madonna.
This single breath.
Each exhale
is your gift
to life.
For life that is yet to start.
For breaths that are still to be taken,
and steps that are still to be walked.
For seeds that are yet to sprout,
and cells that are yet to grow.
In an ever evolving
and expanding
cycle of life.
This single breath.
You see
by being alive
you ARE the sky,
you ARE the rain,
you ARE the rivers,
You ARE the mountains,
the grass,
the forests,
the plant life,
the animals,
the stars in the night sky.
You are the universe,
and the universe is you.
Through this breath,
you are
inextricably
and eternally
connected to all of existence.
The simple yet enormous act
of filling your lungs with air,
makes you part of all that was, is,
and will ever be.
This single breath.