Breath

"How you use your breath is up to you!"

As I get older, and continue to live and breathe, I worry about what I do, and how it impacts the lives of the other people and creatures around me.

Life is so difficult for so many in today’s world, … and I sigh, (another breath!) Maybe I’m just having a difficult day, so I find some nature, and sit and pause and breathe. Then it happens. I notice the beauty around me. It’s always there. The pace of the plants and animals and other people, all trying to survive. All needing oxygen.

I looked it up, and discovered that if our air supply is cut off for 7 or 8 or 9 minutes, we will die from lack of oxygen. As breathing human organisms, we seem to be able to ignore how fragile and vulnerable we really are. Every one of us is connected to all the other living, breathing creatures with whom we share the air.

And there’s a swell of thankfulness for each new breath I take, because it brings me another chance to reflect on the decisions I’ve made! I think our lives are designed to give us constant feedback about how we’re doing, so we can actually choose behaviors that keep us ‘in balance’, rather than fall back on the old familiar behaviors that throw us ‘out-of-kilter’.

Makes me wonder about people who don’t believe that us humans are changing the world climate by polluting the air. If we run out of ‘clean air’ for everyone, … who’s gets to decide who gets oxygen and who doesn’t? I think everyone is precious. They have children too who will need to breathe.

I cherish the life and love around me, and I’m amazed at how my behaviors become more kind-hearted and caring, and less hectic and remorseful, when I realize that we’re all in this boat together.

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BREATH

Cho: What makes one breath G

More precious than another? C-G

When every breath we take is new G-D9

All life is sacred, on this Earth G-C-G

How you use your breath is up to you. G-D9-G

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Is your first breath C-G

More precious than your last? D9-G

Or the laughter of your friends C-G

Or your lover’s gasp? D9

Or your mother’s sigh, C-G

Or your baby’s cry D9-G

Another breath is C-G

Another chance to try! D9-D9+7

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Chorus

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When the eagle holds his breath

Diving through the wind,

When the whale breaches, breathes

Then sounds the deep again,

When the butcher’s cow or pig breathes,

Ready for the blow,

Is a human breath more precious?

What makes us think we know?

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Chorus/ Instrumental Chorus

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One breath at a time is all we really get

If we’re still breathing, then we’re not dead yet!

Though we worry ‘bout our future

And our past may have regrets

We’re birds of a feather

We all breathe this air together.

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Cho: What makes one breath

More precious than another?

When every breath we take is new

All life is sacred, on this Earth

How you use your breath is up to you.

All life is sacred, on this Earth

How you use your breath is up to you.

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Written by Peter Alsop, ©2009 Moose School Music (BMI)

On ‘Disciples of PerFection’ - www.peteralsop.com

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Years ago I noticed how our human species takes away the means for many other species to survive on this shared planet of ours. It’s obvious that we don’t really need to eat meat to grow up ‘big and strong’. I mean, … look at cows, and elephants, they’re big and strong. Maybe they accidentally chomp on a random bug or two when they’re not paying attention to their vegetarian meals, but it’s clear that they don’t have to eat other animals to survive. So, being an omnivore, … I decided to change my meat-eating behavior and stop eating other animals. I feel better for doing that. I did make one exception. I eat salmon. Here’s how that happened.

I was a complete vegetarian, but I’d gotten to a point in my life when my joints felt achy most of the time. I was visiting my friends Doug Dirt and Airy Larry from the Banana Slug String Band in Santa Cruz, and they suggested that I go see their acupuncturist. She might be able to help. So I went to see her.

During the interview she asked me about my diet. I told her that I only eat vegetables, but then I mentioned, …

“You know, two nights ago I had this dream about eating some salmon”. Well, she leaned across her desk, and she took me by my shirt collar and pulled me closer. She widened her eyes and said very slowly, …

“Then, eat, some, Salmon!”

So, I did. And I felt much better! That was many years ago. I still eat salmon occasionally, but no other animals.

We have lots of similarities with other oxygen dependent life-forms, but we tend to amplify the differences between our species. There’s a long human history of believing the story that God gave us humans ‘dominion’ over all the animals, rather than the story that we are responsible for the stewardship of this planet and all the lives on it. We have learned to see our Earth as a planet of ‘us’es and them’s, rather than acknowledging our obvious interdependence and similarities.

To me, our rapid little life on this planet here, seems like an ‘adventure school’; our own individual special assignment is to take this training class here on Earth, where we learn how to cope with innumerable complicated and difficult situations. We make mistakes. We fall down, we hurt, we get up and try something new. And of course “every new breath, is another chance to try.” – and try we do!

So like any good school, we need to pay close attention, or we have to learn the lesson over again! We know we’ve passed when we begin to make choices that help us live a more balanced life. And maybe we don’t graduate until we investigate why and how we value some lives more than others.

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Are we following some formula? Why do we need to prioritize one creature’s ‘importance’ over another’s? Are we even capable of weighing a life’s value by any objective method, or are we stuck with our own selfish personal measurements, based on our own need to survive? Does possessing an abundance of resources make some people more worthy of survival than others who have less?

What do you think?

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All Albums

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