This morning as I was waking for the third time (the first was to find my way to the bathroom, the second to let Honor out to to the same thing some hours later, the third and final time waking at a reasonable hour for a Sunday morning), I lay in bed and practiced breathing. In Vipassana (insight) meditation the breath is central to the practice; it is an anchor to which we attach our awareness and return to it as our restless, wayward mind wanders away from the present moment. As I practiced, I realized how grateful I am to be able to breathe, to perform this seemingly simple act of in a drawing breath then letting it back out. I acknowledged that while the act of breathing might itself be natural and seem simple, the mechanics–the biology, chemistry and physics of the process–is incredibly intricate and complex. I am not a doctor, and my courses in biology, anatomy, and chemistry are three decades behind me, but I remember enough of them to be aware of how miraculous and amazing our bodies are. How the muscles, bones, membranes, skin, hair–all the various constituent parts work together in an intricate dance that allows us to exchange various chemical compounds in the air we take in when we inhale and pushing out different compounds when we exhale.
The songwriter in the Old Testament talks about us being “wonderfully and fearfully made,” that we were “curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth (Psalm 139).” What I knew as I lay there breathing is what a gift and miracle it is to be able to do so. My years of study of anatomy and physiology, biology, biochemistry and chemistry taught me to understand the science of various processes. My years of life and living with an awareness and love of a Divine Presence deepens and grounds this cognition in a foundation of faith and awe and wonder at the miraculous orderliness of it all. I try not to take for granted the gift of breathing–I watched my father gasp and struggle to bring in air in the last days and hours of his life. I’ve assisted each of my children as they suffered through asthma in their early years and as they work to control it now. So as I practiced deep, intentional breathing this morning and as I breathe naturally now while typing this blog, I am grateful.
We are not our bodies–many of us have suffered from living in a society that establishes standards of worthiness based on physical attributes–“beauty,” physique, skin and eye color, hair, etc. We are spiritual beings, sparks of the Divine wrapped in these physical bodies. And while I am more than this body and its appearance, I nonetheless celebrate what a miracle this body is. As I get older and things begin to work a little differently than they used to, I honor my body for what it teaches me about being adaptable to changes. I am wonderfully and fearfully made and am grateful for all the elements that come together to make me who I am in this moment. May we all be healthy and strong in our bodies. So be it!
