Air

 These last few weeks we have had very poor air quality because of forest fires in our area. It is disturbing to have the air so polluted - to have our visibility blocked by smoke from an event outside of our control. We take for granted having clean air to breath, clear air to see, refreshing air to wake up to. In my meditations I was reminded of this blessing from John O'Donohue in his book "To Bless the Space Between us." This is just a part of the poem:

Let us bless the air,
Benefactor of breath,
Keeper of the fragile bridge
We breathe across.

Air waiting outside

The womb, to funnel

A first breath

That lets us begin

To be here,

Each moment

Drawn from

Its invisible stock.

Air: vast neighborhood

Of the invisible, where thought lives

Entering, to arise in us as our own,

Enabling us to put faces on things

That would otherwise stay strange

And leave us homeless here.

Air, home of memory where

Our vanished days secretly gather,

Receiving every glance, word, and act

That fall from presence,

Taking all our unfolding in,

So that nothing is lost or forgotten.

I pray that God helps us clear the air, both literally and figuratively. May our days ahead be full of healthy air and clear paths.