Victoria By The Sea

She found herself on her knees

Digging in, she moved about the rich red sand
Her hands and a shell of a large weathered bar clam for tools
Her usual mind-chatter shut off and she was lost in the meditative flow
Of hands and body moving with raw elements of rock and ocean

Cupping a handful of soil, she brought it close to her face
She breathed in the strong smells of salt and unyielding infinity
Her mother and uncles grew up on the high cliffs just above where she now knelt
The hands of time opened and she realized a deep connection in that moment
Their knees may have knelt in play, in this same spot ... before life revealed its complicated nature to them

Without a word she continued to work the sand before her
Willingly becoming a part of the whole
Her breath uniting with the music of the wind, waves, and gulls
Absorbing itself in the sand, seaweed and broken bits of  breathless crustaceans
Broken down matter that still gives, still sings life's song of re-creation

She remembered reading  that we are all breathing the same air that Jesus breathed
That people on the other side of the world have breathed
The good, the bad, the beautiful and the ugly
The same molecules are still circulating and we are all literally sharing them
It felt good knowing her mother's breath still lived on the wind

Sitting still within the miracle of that
She took three deep breaths

Breathing in the Past

Breathing in the Present

Breathing herself into the Future

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"We all breathe the same air that Jesus breathed and Einstein breathed and even an old woman in China has just breathed a couple of weeks ago. The molecules are still in the air circulating and we are all literally sharing them." - Deepak Chopra