Oxygen

20.  Week of August 15    

The flame that burns in me

My inner star so bright

Depends upon the world to be

World’s breath brings life to light

Held in the world’s steady hand

I have the strength to shine and stand

A flame needs oxygen and fuel to live. We are like candles; our inner flames need the world and what it provides in order for us to burn and shine our own personal light back into the world. Without the world, we could not exist.

In this time it is easy to live as if we are separate from the world, or as if a relationship with the world - the plants, the animals, the ground - is somehow optional. We think that we are autonomous, when in fact it is our relationships with other beings that sustains us. I don’t actually digest my food - the other symbiotic organisms in my gut microbiome do that. The bacteria on my skin (ew! but actually ooh!) create a protective barrier that keeps harmful viruses and bacteria away. In my lungs I exchange carbon dioxide for the oxygen my cells need to live, with each breath, from my birth until my death. We need the world.

This week’s verse invites you to become conscious of these relationships and to feel gratitude. How can we live in such a way that we shine as brightly as we can, that we put these gifts to good use? The world supports me and makes my life possible. How can my life be a gift to the world?