The Magical Present

Painting by Marney Ward

Between the slightly unequal halves of dark and light, there is an open moment, a subtle little gap in time through which the eternal enters this time-bound world and breathes new life into it. In other words, life was not simply breathed into the world at the beginning and now it simply continues mechanically until it ends in darkness again.

Rather, there is a still point in time through which life renews itself at the level of the cosmos, at the level of the turning of seasons, in the daily rhythm of dark and light, and in the pulsing of our own bodies each time we inhale and exhale. For, the same dynamic rhythm of opposing and alternating pairs repeat itself in the living breath of each person, moment to moment, day after day, night after night.

In the year when the coronavirus has threatened the life breath of everyone and taken the lives of far too many, in the season of protests that began with the anguish of “I can’t breathe,” and in a time when everything seems so divided and opposed, it is important to remember the underlying unity and inner wisdom of life.

In times like this, everyone needs a healing image, a saving grace, a place of refuge. And it turns out that the little gap in time through which life renews itself appears within us each time we breathe. In that sense, each breath is sacred and can be a little touch of the eternal. For, we breathe along with the world which continuously renews itself in the…