Breath of Life

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Angad Kaur

Good morning.

Years ago, I was a volunteer Chaplain in a hospital specialising in heart and lung conditions, meeting people at different stages of illness or approaching the end of their life.

Since a child, I’ve not felt uncomfortable or fearful around death. But I’ve also experienced at times a deep melancholy and a resistance to fully and enthusiastically embracing life.

Although I trained to be a Chaplain in Higher Education, an unexpected invitation happened during a hospital visit. God works in seemingly mysterious ways!

A university degree is 3 years. During what turned out to be 3 years, it felt like my spirit had enrolled me onto a degree to learn more about being human and the hospital was a schooling in life.

The lungs are connected to consciousness, presence, life, possibilities and opportunities, fear or faith. They cushion the heart so there is an intimacy between them. This is also the realm of being human.

As I sat with strangers so willing to share their fears and vulnerabilities but also their deep humanity and gratitude for each day of being alive, a transformation took place.

I’d recall a disciple asking Kabir, the mystic, where is God? Kabir replied, God is the breath within the breath.

Through listening and being present, I’d slow down my breath, and a patient would do the same, so we synchronised. Through this, and the remembrance of God’s presence, it opened up an exalted experience of being alive through the Divine breath we were sharing.

Dear God, I give thanks for how you are always working for us, not only through us, and the deepest gratitude to those who I visited to serve, yet served me in learning what it means to be truly human and not take any breath for granted.

Sat Naam