I woke up this morning in the tail end of a disturbed dream. You know the sort – when the last scene actually plays out in your waking state. I was on an operating table about to undergo surgery which I was unlikely to survive.
The anesthetist placed the mask on my face and as I took possibly my last concious breath I was struck wide awake with this thought- breath is a stunning yet unacknowledged gift – it is the gift of living experience. This living we get to do for an hour or 97 years is the experience for which gratitude was invented.

The good- joy, passion, connection, love,dancing and ice cream and the bad- pain, sadness, loneliness, cruelty, violence and homework- all is experience that we are granted for a reason we will never know. Granted to do with what, we will never understand, though through history we have amused ourselves for endless hours creating the one just and right story which explains it all.

The miracle is that each breather inhales a totally unique experience but exhales into a shared experiential field.

In the border camps of Idomeni 14,000 refugees each breathe in the gift of their experience and process it as suffering and fear and hope. Make no mistake, as they exhale,their dreams become the air we breathe too. This is the unseen thread which binds us , that makes their lives and experiences part of ours and perhaps it is our exhalation of the abundance experience which feeds their hope.

March 8 is International Woman’s Day. Let us celebrate with a breathing meditation on gratitude and on our connection to each woman,man and child who seeks a new life today, a new experience of freedom and self respect.

Breathe in the miracle that is life and let gratitude filter into that air before we exhale it into a universal space where others also reach for the miracle of their breath.
Breathe deeply from our full bellies and express the gratitude slowly to send it gently on its way.
And again and again until our lungs are cleansed and our minds refreshed and awakened to creative ideas for living as one people sharing the amazing gift of life.