Elohai Neshama

My body is a
small factory,
breathing in oxygen,
 
releasing carbon dioxide,
making my carbon
breathprint
 
on the world,
disturbing in my
own small way
 
the balance of
our atmosphere–
unless I match
 
my breath for breath
with a tree or three
or a grass thick meadow
 
or a mist fed row of lavender,
a patch of aloe hoarding water,
a sun-sucking cornfield
 
or shaded sea of hostas.
Each person, each animal
needs their garden, orchard,
 
swath of forest–
green partners in
making air, in turning
 
what would otherwise
be toxic waste
into grace,
 
a dance of breath
exchanged and interchanged,
transformed in trust,
 
this truest teshuvah–
returning what we
do not need, what
 
is not and never 
was just ours,
to the other
 
who requires it
to live and thrive–
and in this way
 
sustain and maintain
the integrity of
the breathing, pulsing
 
whole. Green beings
channel the
Breath of Being
 
to us, and we
to them upon 
this breathing planet,
 
whirling like a
great enwombed 
egg on its flight
 
path around our 
flaming star factory, 
which breathes its own
 
fiery breath, a mighty
yet minute participant in
the great in and out
 
that animates every
thing with the influx
of ever moving life-
 
breath we call
soul. Each factory
needs its forest, each
 
forest its star,
each star its
fathomless mystery,
 
the Great Dark
Breath. Barukh
Atah HavaYah
 
Ha-Makhazir neshamot
lif’garim mehtim,
An endless source
 
of blessing are
You, Breath of Life,*
who continually returns 
 
soul, breath by
breath, to the cold 
and lifeless.
 
​         –Diane Elliot  12-28-21

* with gratitude to Rabbi Arthur Waskow for his translation of the four letter Divine Name, Yud-Hey-Vav-Hey, as "Breath of Life" and his many teachings about the ways we exchange breath with trees and plants.

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