Just Breathe

How many times has your “breath been taken away?” For how long can you hold your breath? Sometimes I feel like these past 2 years have been breathless and yet, I breathe.

Breath is a miracle. When we don’t think about it, we just breathe. When we do think about it, it can slow down our heart rate, it can lower our blood pressure, it can put us in the present moment and it can calm our anxieties. It brings peace. When it is labored, just the opposite happens and when it stops – well you know how that ends. Let us not take our breath for granted.

I saw this image of a dandelion and decided after drawing it, I’d recreate it as a notecard. I wanted to include a vibrant movement with a swish of watercolor. My experiments just didn’t quite capture what I wanted.

And suddenly, I realized the need for quiet and subtlety as if standing in a field of dandelions on a clear and beautiful warm day, making wishes with each breath.

I tested the image on vellum paper, embellished with metallic watercolor and laid it on top of a notecard.

I had 4 sample cards that I decided to use and send to friends who happened to be on my mind. It seems that the card, the note and the instruction was perfectly timed.

One friend described the card as a reminder that we sow seeds with the breath of our wishes, our words, our actions. It just takes time for those seeds to take hold. We need only to be patient and continue to breathe and trust what happens next.

To finish off the card, I wrote a poem that barely shows up under the dandelion – it is a sentiment I think many of us experience and know that breathing is essential to erase the racing mind and the pacing heart.

may you breathe in the blessings that surround you.