Today’s prompt is: Exhale
Inhale…exhale. Repeat.
From the moment we are born till our last breath we measure life by the number of breaths.
Always, the exhale signals the end of a breath.
We hold our breath in anticipation, in dread, and on exertion.
In labor, we measure the contractions and ride each wave by the way we inhale and exhale until new life enters the world and the process continues…inhale…exhale.
It’s an amazing process, fresh air loaded with oxygen brings life to us and the exhale removes the waste.
A forced exchange.
In goes the good air, out comes the bad.
The forceful release of our breath can indicate relief, relaxation, concentration, and frustration.
Imagine that- a normal body function that no one thinks about reveals so much.
It is a barometer of feelings, that exhale. The telltale of what is going on inside.
That sigh at the end of the exhale reveals the truth of our feelings, belying our words of “I’m fine, really, I’m just fine.”
We mark time with that release of breath.
We watch loved ones slowly slip away with those last breaths until the last here on this earth.
But the first exhale gave life from God to Adam.
And the rest…. Is our story.
The measure of our days is really a summation of all the exhales we experience.
It fills books, writes history,tells stories, leaves legacies and blessings and curses; it offers encouragement and signals defeat.
The tale of all that’s occurred from that first gasp to the last.
What does your exhale reveal about you?
Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Genesis 2:7