as close as our breath

What would change in your life if you viewed each breath as a gift from God?

Psalm 144: 4(a) 

...they are like a breath

I often refer to God, in the Holy Spirit, being as close as our breath – and it is a wondrous and humbling thing to consider that life, our life, is like a breath.

How often do we think about the act of breathing?

I would imagine anytime we have been sick, or breathing has been labored, our breath becomes something we are much more mindful of. But even moment to moment, breathing is not something I think much about- it is simply something my body does.

And perhaps, in that lack of attention to my own breathing, I have missed the ways that the Holy Spirit is living and moving within the rising and falling of my own chest.

I wonder what we might witness or experience, if we paid closer attention to our breath, and closer attention to the movement of our day to day living.

How can being mindful of your breath throughout the day become a spiritual practice for you? What would change in your life if you viewed each breath as a gift from God? How might this shift your priorities or actions in daily living?

– Pepa Paniagua