Taking One Breath and Then Another

Getting Through

“...we can look back at our life, not only at our birth, but at all other spots where we got into really tight spots and suffered anxiety. Anxiety is not optional in life. It's part of life. We come into life through anxiety. And we look at it and remember it and say to ourselves: We made it. We got through it.”

Br. David Steindl-Rast (Anatomy of Gratitude; Interview On Being with Krista Tippett)

David Steindl-Rast has been honing his gratitude skills for more than ninety years. He was a child in Vienna at the rise of Hitler, and during World War II, he was part of the resistance. He's seen many dark times, and has perspective. He believes that we can never take our next breath for granted, no matter what is going on or not going on around us, and so being able to take that next breath is a blessing for which we can be grateful.

While he said in his interview with Krista Tippett that we have had many thousands of crises in our history, he believes one condition has changed—we are now capable of self-annihilation—through climate change, destruction of the environment, and uncontrolled violence. He suggests that, while we must acknowledge our anxiety about this, we should not move into fear—we should use it as an opportunity to change what we are doing. The word anxiety comes from a root that means “narrowness” and “choking” and originated in the birth process, when the baby is being squeezed through the birth canal. In the case of the baby, it must not resist, but must persevere in the face of anxiety and discomfort, because its life depends upon being born. The same is true for us--we must persist.

Steindl-Rast recalled a prayer by Rainier Maria Rilke, which speaks to how we might address our current crisis, and truly, any crisis: “With every step I do, I go towards you. Because who am I and who are you if we do not understand each other?” Whether we are talking about that which we call God, or one another, we must move towards rather than away.

Today, we can take one more breath, and one more breath. We can prevent our movement from anxiety into fear, which paralyzes us. And we do this by going towards one another, by shifting from narrowness to openness, and by being grateful for each step. In this moment of crisis, perhaps something new is being born.

                                                                  In the Spirit,

                                                                      Jane