Easter Blessings!

Easter seems like a most appropriate time to contemplate our conference theme of breathing new life in us. 

Deep Breath by Melanie Weidner 2005
http://www.listenforjoy.com/

A book I'm into at the moment is "The Naked Now" by Richard Rohr and his comments about breathing God have really stuck with me.  Many will be familiar with YHWH as the Hebrew reference to God - and that it was not to be spoken.  Rohr states that "this unspeakability has long been recognized, but we now know it goes even deeper: formally the word was not spoken at all, but breathed!  Many are convinced that its correct pronunciation is an attempt to replicate and imitate the very sound of inhalation and exhalation.  The one thing we do every moment of our lives is therefore to speak the name of God."

"When considered in this way, God is suddenly as available and as accessible as the very thing we all do constantly -- breathe."

God is omnipresent -- all around us, in us and through us so we breathe that life force, God's grace, in 17,000+ times per day!!  That breath carries the oxygen our cells need to divide and produce new cells, that breath carries compassion for our planet that makes us search for alternatives to using paper plates and plastic cutlery at the conference, that breath fills us with love that motivates us to consider how Mothers' Union can help with the suicide prevention program in the Arctic.  We will all be breathing that breath May 31 - June 3 -- let the new life in!!