Learning to Breathe

Do you remember yours?  I don’t remember mine either.  The moment I took my first breath could very well have been the most important moment of my life – and I don’t remember it.  I have no choice but to take it for granted.  And most every breath I have taken since then?  Taken for granted.

But not this one… Hhmmm-hhaaaahhh.  This is not just another breath.  Nor is this just another blog.  My hope for this diminutive little space of the internet is to write about things that are all but trivial – matters that matter.  To me, yes. And things that matter to you.  To all of us.

When a writer thinks he has something important to say, if I wish to read on I am inclined to ask “Am I interested in this subject?  And if so, what qualifies him/her to write about this subject?”  You may be like myself – I don’t appreciate my time being wasted.  I have a very full calendar.  I have to make a living.  I am married and I have children – my life is not my own.  I love to read, but uninterrupted  moments of solitude are rare.  If I am reading I am reading to learn something I don’t know.  If I wish only to be entertained I will watch a movie.  I am an escapist when it comes to movie-going.  (I love sci-fi and action, but the softer side of me really appreciates a great story about human issues.)  But when I read I want to be inspired, to be changed by what I am reading.

Such is the purpose of this blog.  Inspiration.

By the way, I have a great interest in etymology.  That is, language and the origin and meaning of words.  “Inspiration” is one of those interesting words.  It’s root is Latin: spirare.  It means “to breathe.”  We know inspiration to be “something that makes someone want to do something” (Definition from Merriam-Webster).  What inspires us compels us.  This is because the word inspire means “to breathe into,” and inspiration is thus “giving life to” as it points to the source of breath.

So why do I wish to inspire you?  What do I have to gain from this?  And what do I wish to inspire you to do?  And still there is the question of what qualifies me to entertain the idea that I can accomplish this.  Honestly, I cannot.  I stake no such claim.  Although I may share about myself with you from time to time this blog will not be about me.  I don’t think I am that interesting to keep your attention.  Yes, I will share my thoughts with you, but it is my confidence in the subject matter(s) that will inspire you.

Before going on I wish to pause and share another word with you.  Conspire.  Yes, you guessed it.  It has the same Latin root as inspire.  It is a compound word, meaning it is comprised of two or more words.  (Does this take you back to school?)  It is the joining of spirare (“to breathe”) and the prefix con-, which means “with” or “together” (like connect). Hence, conspire means “to breathe with/together.”

My hope for this blog is that it might serve as a platform that we may conspire with one another.  That is, that we may “breathe together,” so to speak.  To be inspired together.  That is the premise of this blog: Learning to Breathe.  This is about us.  Together.

I don’t know about you, but I would like to.  Nothing qualifies me to write on this platform any more than you.  Learning to Breathe is a conversation.  It is a conversation about what matters to us.  I don’t know about you, but I think a lot about our existence – our condition, direction, purpose.  The things that rattle around in my 3-pound brain are an existentialist’s dream (or nightmare, depending on how you look at it).  The reason that I think about these things may interest you more than the plain fact that I do.  (Take a moment and please read the About section of this blog.)  I am a chaplain.  I work for a hospital system and also for my local city police and fire stations.  My business is people.  Happy people.  Sad people.  People in pain.  People who are dying, or wish they were dead.  People with difficult questions.  About life.  About death.  About everything in between.  People that are searching, trying to find their way through life.  Some are just trying to survive.  My college degrees, nor do my credentials, qualify me to write on this platform.  I simply wish to advocate for these people.  (I may share their stories here from time to time – anonymously, of course.)  They force me to search myself.  But I don’t have all the answers.

Perhaps together we can figure it out.  Breathe with me.

But before we move on, here is another interesting word: Spirituality.

Yes, you guessed it.  It’s root is Latin.  Care to guess what it means?