just breathe

It seems humorous to say:

                      just breathing can make you feel so alive.

Sounds like a basic statement. No breathing=No living, right?

But, by breathing, I don’t just mean gasping for breath as you run a marathon or the unconscious rhythm of breaths that keep oxygen flowing through your bloodstream as you live at any pace. 

I mean the sensation of settling when you stop and feel peace. Peace is funny like that, it settles on you, but it feels like a weight off you. A Selah.

We go; we do; we starve and we gorge.

We put pressure on ourselves and others.

Sure, there are seasons of work and struggle; Days when we can’t just stop, days when others are counting on us to lead, to fight, to persevere. There is courage and strengthening that can happen there.

But, there’s also courage and strengthening in the resting, pausing, waiting… breathing.

We’re so busy and then we’re so bombarded that we have to force our selves to “unwind” in healthy ways.

As much as I believe we were made to accomplish greatness; never give-up; to innovate; to create; to give out-I am now believing we were created to let-go, to rest, to stop and just BREATHE.

We don’t become alive because of all we accomplish and accumulate.

We become alive by being and breathing.