

The Spirit of God is integral to our personhood – to existence and being itself. You can’t run away from her. She is our breath, or in our breath, or maybe even closer than our breath. All I know is that my breath keeps calling me back to her, to remembrance. It’s all I can think about.

Our breath is our livelihood, and yet is also asks us to rest, to sink into our bodies, and to meet God in what is most natural to us.

Swedenborg says you can meet God in your lungs, or something like that. Through practiced breathing, he grew in the gift of being a seer.

My one friend says that chanting Allah’s names and focusing in on breathing feel one and the same. He says that every breath is a declaration of Allah. So why not do both? he asks.

Imam Ali (as) says that every breath you take is a step towards death. That isn’t a warning, or some sobering wisdom. Every breath is an invitation to take up the cross. To die to self. To face reality and our limitations. And in that, meet Glory.

I keep hearing God everywhere, all the time, inviting me to abide. My breath keeps tugging me back into my body, and making me face God. What glory it is to seek God within. I pray I can come to always live where the veil is torn.