Dear Friends,

Earlier this week, I sent out to our vestry the agenda for our meeting. It included the topics we needed to cover, as well as the regular calendar of upcoming events. Our Junior Warden, Bridget Nyhan, responded in an email and suggested that we needed to add one more agenda item: “Breathe!”

She noticed that there is much going on, starting tomorrow with the Sidewalk Sale. Don’t forget to take a breath in the midst of it all, she was suggesting. And so I will. And if I needed a reminder, it was provided for me on Thursday evening. I was upstairs in the Parish Hall, getting ready to welcome the Choir back. Last spring, Jane Struss graciously offered to lead the Choir in some breath and movement exercises before each rehearsal, and she was there again this Thursday night. And so I joined in, becoming much more aware of the air I was breathing in and then sending out. I became more aware of the power of breath.  It was a gift, even as Bridget’s reminder was.

It is no small thing the the Hebrew word, ruach, is used in the Hebrew Scriptures for both “breath” and “spirit.” And it is not small thing that Paul in his letter to the Romans can describe the Holy Spirit as interceding for us with “sighs too deep for words.”

I do want to remember to breathe as the fall schedules of work, home and church, are upon me. And I want to remember that with each breath, I can trust more deeply in the Holy Spirit to be present, to guide, to support, and even to cause me to stand still, to stand straight, and to simply, breathe.

Faithfully,

Tom