Just Breathing (the Cinematic Orchestra ft. Fontella Bass)

Oh that song is singin,' singin' into me.
Over everything I used to be.
Oh, that song is singin,' singin' into me.
Slow and sweet, it carries me...

...Breathe into me
Breathe out through me
Breathe into me. (Cinematic Orchestra)

The giggly excitement of the shepherds and kings quieted, as one little angel stood up to deliver her carefully memorized lines.  I noticed, as I watched her, that I was holding my breath; perhaps in anticipation of what would surely be the cutest thing I’d seen all year, or perhaps remembering the nerve-wrecking pageant performances of my own childhood.  

There are many moments, in this season, when we might hold our breath: walking into a room full of strangers at a Christmas party, Uncle Joe starting a political debate over turkey dinner, turning around at the Christmas eve service to see everyone’s faces lighted only by candles, hearing that strange song on the radio that grandma loved so much when she was alive…

Today’s song offers us an important reminder in these last days before Christmas: Breathe.  Just breathe, in and out. Whether in a state of anxiety, stress, fatigue, wonder, the reminder of this song is that in all of these moments there is space for us, grace for us, to just be, to dwell in each moment, to breathe. 

 

In the varied moments and emotions of these days, in the rushing and in the quiet, there is a steady grace singing over us, reminding us that Love has come for us, just as we are. Or as the angel sang “I bring good news of great joy for all the people,” not just for people who have it together, not only for those who are full of Christmas cheer, not only for those who identify as Christians, but good news for ALL people.  

At the root of this story (and of our faith) is this grace: Love came to be born among us, and seeks still to enter our lives, to be born in each of us, all of us, every day. When we are quieted from the rushing, the expectations, the judgments, when we take a moment to just dwell in this grace, what song will we hear singin’ over us?

May it be a song of love, a breath of grace, carrying us, breathing into us and out through us.

-Lindsey

As swimmers dare

to lie face to the sky

and water bears them

as hawks rest upon air

and air sustains them,

so would I learn to attain

freefall, and float

into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace,

knowing no effort earns

that all-surrounding grace.

-Denise Levertov, The Avowal