I Am Rahab…To Breathe
by, Silvanie Gilbert

About 20,000 times a day on average, that’s how many times we breathe. Without instruction or command, it just happens. It powers our existence and is no doubt one of the most unrealized miracles of our lives. Whether it rains or snows, while awake or in a deep sleep, we breathe. It’s not just a necessity of life; it is also demonstrative of the state we might be in at any given moment. In a fit of rage, breathing is exacerbated; in the presence of a lover, it is strong and fast. During the practice of meditation, it is measured and slow. In the excitement of a child, it is hard to catch. One’s breathing announces a new life, yet under the cruelty of a knee, it is extinguished in 9 minutes and 29 seconds.

To breathe… the mechanics of it are more involved than you would realize. When we inhale, the diaphragm contracts and pushes downward, preparing a way for the task at hand. The muscles between our ribs help to enlarge the space in our chest. They pull the rib cage upward and outward so the air of open meadows can pour in, giving rise for the lungs to expand. It’s a remarkable thing to comprehend, and the Creator of it is even more. Just imagine the greatness of that, more than 20,000 times a day. Yet, the things we do the most are also the things we most take for granted. There’s nothing more revealing about the power of God than the fragility of mankind. There’s no place on Earth where you can go to find another once your last breath has expired. No amount of money can buy you access once God’s Grace sends your last one.

My mother, my sweet, sweet mother. She was with me for my first breath; I was with her for her last. To see that final breath is something I will never forget. It changes your spirit somehow, an evolution into someone new. To drown in the sudden understanding of how powerless you are is a feeling I can barely describe. It’s an event unique to its own happening. The panic and desperation of trying to push one more breath into a body with no will to accept it; just one more breath, that’s all you’d ask of a life with no power to receive it.

We would do well to cherish the miracle it is to breathe, not just for ourselves but for all those we love. There’s no cause for lament in this reality. The cycle of life unfolds for us all. But, while we are here, I say we champion the gift that it is to breathe. Find time in each day to take the deepest one you can manage. Feel the mechanics of it, and relish in the blessing of what it means. Feel every moving part of it as if it were your first or last one. There are 20,000 BREATHES on a given day. As they come and go, be sure to fully recognize at least one.

We are Rahab too