Breath of the Soul

This week we start with Mary Oliver's poem "Some Questions You Might Ask:"

“Is the soul solid, like iron?

Or is it tender and breakable, like

the wings of a moth in the beak of the owl?

Who has it, and who doesn't?

I keep looking around me.

The face of the moose is as sad

as the face of Jesus.

The swan opens her white wings slowly.

In the fall, the black bear carries leaves into the darkness.

One question leads to another.

Does it have a shape? Like an iceberg?

Like the eye of a hummingbird?

Does it have one lung, like the snake and the scallop?

Why should I have it, and not the anteater

who loves her children?

Why should I have it, and not the camel?

Come to think of it, what about the maple trees?

What about the blue iris?

What about all the little stones, sitting alone in the moonlight?

What about roses, and lemons, and their shining leaves?

What about the grass?”

One of my teachers, Kumi Yogini, says, "we are not the body, we are not the mind, we are something divine." That something divine is the soul.

When we die, we stop breathing. Many people believe that this is when our soul leaves our body. Breath is the physical manifestation of our soul inhabiting our body.

Throughout most of our lives, we only use the upper third of our lung capacity to breathe. That means that most of our breath capacity goes unused.

Where are we encouraged to breathe deeper? Yoga and meditation. I firmly believe that's why so many of us crave these practices. It's a way of being more connected to the breath, and thus, more connected to the soul. When we step on the mat, it's soul time. It's time to come back to our deeper selves.