Take a deep breath.
I mean, waaaaaay down deep.
Until your tummy puffs out and your lungs are about to burst.

Hold it.

Hold it.

Okay, now let it go.

There now, didn’t that feel good?

Our cells do a happy dance when we take in all that lovely oxygen.
Our over-loaded brains get a turbo-boost,
our tight muscles sing for joy,
our frazzled nerves fire down.

My word for 2019 is EXHALE.

We were created to have a natural rhythm:
inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale.
I’m afraid our way of life has developed an unnatural cycle:
inhale, inhale, inhale, inhale, inhale, get sick, exhale.

I’m going to try to step into the Creator’s cadence,
listen for the heartbeat of the Master,
watch for His ebb and flow.

I’m going to learn to exhale.

In the book of Exodus, we read, “In six days God made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day God rested and was refreshed.” Here, the word “refreshed” literally means, and God exhaled. All creation moves with the rhythm of the inhale and the exhale. Without the Sabbath exhale, the life-giving inhale is impossible. ~ “Sabbath” by Wayne Muller