Anyone who has ever meditated or taken Yoga knows the importance of the breath, of deepening and slowing our breathing to quiet mind, body, and spirit.

I remember a ritual at a Joan Borysenko retreat many years ago where she asked us to stop at the midpoint between breathing in and breathing out. The idea was new to me. She pointed out that it was in that pause where we experienced presence, stillness, the timeless center of our life. She reminded us of the importance of this middle phase, this restful place, this beingness between the actions of doing. The Old Testament God is said to have rested on the 7th day. Thus, the sabbath was created. Sunday Blue Laws continued until a couple of generations ago. Now meditation, yoga, or zazen practices are popular ways of quieting ourselves.

You may wonder how this fits into Celtic practices. It is the essence of the magic of threes. The modern era bought in polarization, either/or thinking, even at the level of our breathing. We think in/out NOT in/pause/out. Three creates a cycle; two creates the stop/start of a teeter-totter. At every level of life, of the earth and Universe is CYCLE.

I have been struggling recently to adapt to a sleep apnea CPAP machine. I won’t bother you with the details; many of you have had your own challenges with breathing comfortably or have watched a loved one struggle.

This has taken me to a deeper level of contemplation of my life cycle than ever before. Trying to surrender to the force of the air coming into me by machine has brought the issue of surrender to me at its core- the very breath I take. Sorry for being so dramatic but I wanted to share because I was so powerfully reminded that words like gratitude, surrender, finding stillness are so much more than just words.

I have been praying recently for two friends in hospice, wishing them peace, restful peace, and ease of transition. But my experience with my CPAP is helping me confront my own need to “Let Go and Let God”, by whatever name we call the energy of Higher Being.

Breathe easy, friends, In and Out with a beautiful pause of stillness in each breath.