A Shared Breath

Ever wondered what our purpose in life is? We are here for the trees.

They share the oxygen we need, as we, with every exhale, create the carbon dioxide they need. We’re here to help the plants breathe, just as they are here to help us breathe. With each breath you take, you are sustaining our shared life here. You are participating in a timeless cycle of giving and receiving. You are fulfilling a natural and profound purpose. We are here for the trees. This is a sacred reciprocity – a gentle, intelligent balance.

My husband says we are manure for the plants. Like the wild animals that eat the fallen fruits in the forest and then die and rot back into the soil, feeding the trees that fed them – that’s us too. Our bodies return to the soil, again becoming the earth from which they were given life and what sustained them. Once we return to the soil, our physical forms feed the earth – our skin as nourishment for the soil. This is the ultimate symbiosis. A symbiosis of love in all forms – both spiritual and physical.

We are not owners of the Earth. We are here as compost, not here to conquer. To see ourselves as above nature – how sad and lonely. We belong to the earth; our blood and breath are one with its ecosystem. We are of the soil. Our interchange of breath with the trees is our gifting each other life.

Domination destroys. Devotion cares. Connection cares. Kinship cares. We cannot destroy that for which we care – that we love and belong to. If our purpose was this simple: to care for the soil, to be cared for by the soil, to then return to the soil... then what? 

Breathing with you, Rose.