Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, for breath,
the rise and fall of my chest,
bringing life to my body one moment at a time.
I cannot store up breath,
and breathing out is equally as important as breathing in.

Blessed are You for this gentle infusion of life,
without which I would die,
and yet of which I am hardly aware.
You would think, knowing if I stop breathing I’ll die, that I would obsess over it.
But I trust my mind and body to keep the rise and fall of my chest
and the beat of my heart
and to let me know if anything goes awry.

Perhaps Your Spirit in me is this way.
I don’t need to always be aware of it for it to be always there,
tending Life inside me,
centering me like a deep breath,
spreading life to the very edges of my body
every moment,
gently,
and so faithful that I need not give it a second thought,
except to pause in gratitude that I am inhabited by Life
and this is the Lord’s doing.

Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe,
for the reminder that I can work hard to hold on tight,
or I can remember that You are inhabiting me,
and rest.