Breathe

I have wonderful memories of camping in the bush, watching the sunrise and breathing in crisp, clean air.

Obviously, breathing is such an important part of everyday life and yet it is something that we often don’t even think about until we are out of breath or exerting ourselves whilst wearing a mask!

On average, we take approximately 20,000 breaths per day and breathe in about 11,000 litres. Your body cells use the oxygen you breathe to get energy from the food you eat. Breathing gives us energy and life. You could argue that breathing gives us 99% of our energy. To live we must breathe.

I smiled when I came across these comments about breathing:

The trick to life is to just keep breathing! - Johnny Lung

SCUBA is an acronym for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. TUBA is an acronym for Terrible Underwater Breathing Apparatus. I think that stands true. 

And one for the kids - What did the green grape say to the purple grape? Breathe… Breathe…

Rob Bell shares interesting insights in the presentation “Breathe” from the NOOMA series. He starts by talking about God’s name and that the English translation L-O-R-D is mentioned in the Bible over 6000 times. Originally written in Hebrew, God’s name is essentially four letters, Y-H-V-H and is pronounced, “Yod, Heh, Vav, Heh”. He notes that some may pronounce the name as Yahweh and in many traditions the name isn’t even pronounced because it is considered sacred and holy. 

Ancient Rabbis believe that they function as vowels in the Hebrew language and they were essentially breathing sounds, “Yod, Heh, Vav, Heh”. Rob then asks, “Is the name of God the sound of breathing? If it is, how does that change the way you view yourself and others? He then asks, “When a baby is born, what is the first thing it must do? It must take its first breath, or is it to say the name of God? The last thing we do is take our final breath or as Rob states, “When we can no longer say the name of God, we die.”

Having the breath of life is a beautiful thing. Breathe in the things that give you life. Breathe out the things that you need to let go.

Let’s be grateful that we can have spaces where we can take deep life giving breaths, that we can fill our lungs with fresh, clean air.

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. - Genesis 2:7 (NKJV)