…even working women have to breathe

Many years ago when I was a young bride, I taught music at an elementary school.  My office was in the teachers’ lounge, and each morning one of the third grade teachers arrived, just barely in time and of breath.  Today I can still see her standing in front of the mirror to fasten her belt, dash on her lipstick and pull a comb through her hair before running out to her classroom.  At the time I know that she has three children and I am full of wonder at how she can do it all when I have only myself and a new husband, which I find stressful enough.  Back then I did not know anything about the real breath of life, nor was I consciously aware of nurturing the spirit.  I only knew that what she was doing looked really, really hard.

Now all of these many, many years later with my own children grown and doing their adult lives, I notice how I spend a typical morning.  Before I leave for my office close to 10 a.m., I have sent some e-mail, faxed a program format, answered a few phone messages and made a few more, watered our flowers outside, checked on my appointment schedule, talked to my mother, perhaps completed part of the laundry or gathered the dry cleaning, had a few minutes to catch up with my daughter on her way to work, maybe talked to a friend I seem to never get to see, or on an exceptionally precious morning, I am able to squeeze in some writing time even if the breakfast dishes stay on the counter.  When I take a close look, I wonder what has really changed from when I had two small children hanging on my clothes as I readied for work, or from that teacher I observed so long ago.  Sometimes not much.

What happens with women that we forget about the breath of life, the absolute necessity of putting our own care first, the requirement of the full nurturing of ourselves in order that we can give to others with joy?

Part of the truth is simply that we all try to do too much, and if one thing lets up a little, we’ll add a couple more.  We like to deny the facts of being human.  Oh, we know that we must all breathe, of course, but we do not honor our actual breath of life; the place where we slow the breath that comes in and out of our bodies, that we bless each inhale and exhale for the miracle that it is, and for the way that very breath, the one that exact second, supports the entire physical system that allows us to keep going at all.  Honor, respect, breath.  The miracle of it, of us.  In that moment of honor and respect, breath, miracle, it is possible to see out of an entirely different window.  This is the window where things slow down, where what we thought were absolutes make a shift to remind us of what we truly value.  This might be the window of the spirit that can save the beauty of our lives.  If you were to look out of this window, what would you see?  What would you want to change in your hectic schedule?  What gift would you be willing to give to yourself?  What would you be doing with the miracle of your own breath, your own life?

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