Endings and beginnings

The essence of my being is founded on the breath. What my senses hold as truths, the breath reveals as deceits.

I look upon my body and see its boundaries, definitions and myriad functions. Parts with names, one doing things other parts cannot. I taste saltiness and sweetness on different parts of my tongue. I feel the clothing on my skin but not on my kidney. My voice sings but my toes do not.

I protect my body because it is mine. I feed it, rest it and let it play. I take it to places I believe are safe for it. I give only nourishment that will produce longevity. Its youthful appearance, abundance of energy, and generally happy temperament are validations for my choices.

All of the above say, "This body is mine. I make choices for it."

What shatters the sanctity of these long held beliefs, is the silent simplicity of the breath.

The breath comes from the everywhere of nowhere. For the briefest moment it mingles, partakes, gives to a body called a Marie and then, exits out into the same space wherefrom it came. A repetition of how many of this has gone on and yet not a single one can be identified as mine. How? If it's always leaving me, how can I call it mine?

Oxygen comes from plants but, which plant (or plants) gave me my last breath and which plant (or plants) have I nourished with my exhalation? I cannot choose when and which plant to get my breath from and which ones to give my exhalation to. If I cannot identify and delineate where which came from and to which I'm giving back to with my breath, then neither can I truly identify where I end and where I begin.

Since my breath is not mine, then anything attached to it isn't mine either: life, family, possessions, country, beliefs. All my fears, emotions, insecurities, dreams and virtues that I deny, uphold and identify, are instinctive sensory by-products of the breath....They are but rainbows in the sky on a rainy summer day; the personalization fades in the light of awareness.

At the heart of all this is this --

I am breath.

I am nameless and formless....