You are your church, your temple, your God.
You are your light, your Christ, you are all.
You are the power, the peace, and the connection.
You are freedom, the fraction and the sum.
Your breath is your bridge back to you.
The channel to your creator.
Your path into and through yourself.
Each inhale is your beginning
Each exhale is your end.
It is life and it is death.
It is birth and it is rest.
So how do you breathe in the presence of others.
And how do you breathe in the presence of fear.
When fear first came to me I dismissed it as discomfort.
I was only a child. So I held my breath.
And discomfort became my custom.
When fear came again, I laughed.
And it made other’s laugh, too.
So laughter became my defence.
When fear came again, I hid.
Behind books, and words and reasons.
And hiding became my home.
When fear came again, I looked.
I saw it and I cried.
I tightened and recoiled.
But from underneath my pillow,
I heard it crack.
Then when fear came again, I broke.
I saw it and I cried.
But I loosened and let go.
And through the shower stream
Washing over me,
I heard it open.
So when fear came again, I spoke.
I felt it and I exhaled.
And in that moment
It’s meaning poured over me.
And I closed my eyes and I prayed.
And despite my discomfort,
my defences, and my broken parts,
I understood love while
Fear took hold of me.
And in light of my curiousity,
my crying and my open heart,
I learned how to love while
Fear filled every empty part of me.
So I sank into it’s shape,
And we became one.
Right there, in the darkest corner
of the scariest cave.
In the only place that I did not want to be brave.
But I stood there and drowned in my distress.
And in that corner, and in that cave,
I met myself, face to face.
My life, my death.
Through long, bated breaths.
I saw myself, and my body was glowing.
And the cave was no longer dark,
And the corner held knowing.
It was me sitting there,
Waiting to be be seen.
I saw I was the fear.
The pain and the distraction.
I saw I was the courage.
The stillness and the action.
So I set myself free.
By meeting me,
In the darkest of spaces,
And the hardest to love places.
But before I spoke, I broke.
And before I was safe, I felt betrayed.
Because we must see that we are both
The dark and the light.
The day and the night.
We are the peace and the war.
The ego and the soul.
And our power lies in knowing
without each part,
We cannot be whole.
So I no longer fight my fear,
And I no longer fear the fight.
I am complete in the duality of me.
Because I am breath and I am light.
Because I am death and I am life.
So below, it is me, as I am above.
And this is how I breathe in the presence of love.
Written August 26, 2019