Listen

Fill us full every morning with your faithful love so we can rejoice and celebrate our whole life long.

Psalm 90:14

Think

Take a breath. Breathe deeply in and then breathe fully out, exhaling until all of the breath has left your lungs. Then, again, take a breath.

Some people call this practice of breathing “the vital exchange breath.” First, taking in a breath reminds us that we need to breathe in order to BEGIN. Next, letting go of that older air forces us to once again fill our lungs with the fresh air that takes us to the next step.

Maybe this is a way to fill yourself each morning and a reminder of the vital exchange you need with God. After all, God gives you this day. And what a thing to remember… that it’s possible to rejoice and celebrate in some way every day.

Are you headed to school today? Are you feeling excited, anxious, sad, ready? The vital exchange of filling yourself with reminders of God’s presence will be with you no matter where you exist on the “back to school” feelings scale. Take a breath: breathing in God’s mercy, breathing out and remembering that more of God is ready to fill you.

Gina Yeager-Buckley

Pray

A breathing prayer:

As you inhale say to yourself, “Breathing in God’s mercies.”

As you exhale fully – until all of the breath has left your lungs – say to yourself, “Breathing out God’s mercies for the world. For the world in need of God’s vital love.”

As you inhale again say to yourself, “Breathing in, again, God’s mercies, that will never go away.”

Amen.

Go

Taking today’s moments into your breath, your heart, your hands and feet,

live what you hear from God today,

and tomorrow.