Breathe

Air

Breath: it should be a given:
For many right now, it feels on many levels, that there is so little air.

Any asthmatic will tell you how impossible it is to get a gasp of air during an asthma attack. 
And when some well meaning person says: Just relax and breathe…Take a deep breath… 

 Are you kidding? 

People respond differently when they cannot breathe.  Some pretend that there is all the air they need, even when they are suffocating.  Some want all the air for themselves at the expense of anybody else. 

Any survivor will tell you how impossible it was to breathe when they were not safe, and how difficult it still may be to breathe under stress.

Then –the gasp for survival that is the constant in black, brown, indigenous, and immigrant lives.

Air.

 And the earth:  as the lungs of the world are being burned.
as the planet heats up and forces us to gasp.
as the entire population of humanity struggles through this pandemic, for air, for life.

 Some grasp as they gasp.

 Air.

When a woman is giving birth, there is a moment or an hour when her breath is short.  All she can do is blow and push --but then again, maybe she needs to wait to push even if her body is screaming to let go… 

Even if it seems like there is no deep pocket of air, the world itself is in such a giant transition—one great act of giving birth.  It is bloody and messy –but it will happen nevertheless.…whether we like it or not , with or without enough air.

We are in this great reckoning together, no matter where we sit, no matter who we are.

We breathe—deep or shallow.   
We will also grow, deep or shallow…giving birth, no matter how long it takes.

So breathe the air as best you can.
And when the time is right, push.