Breath of Life
We feel on edge. We're anxious. We pass the days in total isolation or stuck in a house full of people. A momentary distraction is quickly interrupted by the alert on our phone that another one was taken. We feel suffocated by fear, paralyzed wondering if we'll be next. It's as though we have no room to breathe.
How ironic.
For, because of the thing we dread, hospitals host thousands of people who physically cannot breathe. Thousands clinging to ventilators for dear life, the life saving machines that run fewer and farther between with each passing moment.
We have tightness in our chests from anxiety and fear; they have tightness in their chests from a pathogen tearing apart their bodies. What they wouldn't give to trade places with us.
We're afraid we'll be the victim one day soon. So we spend these special moments anxiously envisioning our worst potential fate, or complaining about the new normal. We spend hours inundating ourselves with bleak news articles, talking in circles about how terrifying it all is, wondering how this could possibly be real life.
How futile.
Do not waste your precious breaths, because you have only a finite supply. We cannot let fear suffocate us before the pathogen even enters our bodies.
Public enemy number 1: COVID-19. It will take some, it might infect all.
What it can't take is our hope. What it can't take is our resilience. What it can't take is our connection with one another: infected & healthy, heart beating & deceased, rich & poor.
Each shallow, anxious breath you allow deprives you of the glory of this precious instant. This instant that you will never have back. You are giving your breath to the enemy before it has even arrived.
Rather, let every breath be full and robust. Let every breath offer an opportunity for gratitude. A moment of peace. An act of trust. Trust that we are held by something greater than ourselves. Trust that our collective conversion of oxygen to CO2 serves a purpose. Trust that we can - and will - take on this enemy, so tiny and lethal.
If we give in now, how will we fight when the time comes? A wise warrior saves his energy for the battle. If we pre-emptively paralyze ourselves in fear before seeing the competitor's face, do we stand a chance?
We must prepare. Prepare our bodies and prepare our minds by deepening our breaths and by using them to connect more deeply with those afflicted.
For each breath you take happens but once in all time. It's a gem that comes and goes. A gem that thousands covet in this very moment.
Inhale the feeling of love and exhale the feeling of trust. We are held, we are safe, we are strong. We will defeat public enemy number 1.
(written in March 2020, a moment in history)