Life Breathes Us

I encountered a concept several years ago in a yoga class.
It is that life breathes us.

Life breathes us?

As a hyper-responsible, if-life-isn't-perfect-it is-all-my-fault sort of personality type, this was a whole new way of looking at things.

Life breathes me?  How---uh-----mind boggling.  How very "one-hand-clapping" to my personality type.

Cool.

As I lay in Shivasana and breathed, I recalled how hard it is to stop breathing.  I have heard that it is impossible to kill oneself by simply stopping breathing, for the instant one passes out, the breath rushes in again.  


Huh.


This implies that the life force is stronger than my will, which may seem obvious to you, but seemed like a whole new concept to me.  


It is one more, "I am not that powerful" message that is helpful to hear as I find myself once again struggling to figure out why life can be so hard and what I did wrong to deserve such struggle.  "You mean, maybe it's not my fault?  Maybe it is simply that s#!t happens?  Maybe I can channel some of this wasted blaming and analyzing energy into coping and recovering?  Awesome!"  (I have learned this before.  Why is it so easy to forget?)


Despite how things keep NOT looking the way I think they should, LIFE is still choosing me.  Life is breathing me.  Something about that thought is deeply comforting to me.  I am simply not so powerful as to have much control about it all.


It is also a massive contradiction to a core life-story element. Okay, so my parents weren't thrilled to get a girl, but LIFE chose me anyway.  I am here. And from time to time, I get a glimpse that I can be a powerful force for good.  Despite ignorance, clumsiness, cluelessness, awkwardness, and a whole host of other "-ness"es, I was breathed into existence and there is a plan for me. 


It helps.


And if you are reading this, I assume you are breathing, which means life is breathing YOU too, for good reason and good purpose.

Amen!