Every now and then in the novels I read a sentence will jump out and find a home in me. Right now I am reading a beautifully written book called Ahab’s Wife or, The Star Gazer by Sena Jeter Naslund. It tells the many layered life-story of the wife of Ahab in another novel, Moby Dick. It is a story of the love of the sea that is fueled by a home in a lighthouse and one young woman’s great courage to have a life of adventure and meaning. I highly recommend it.
A little more than a hundred pages into the book, one of the paragraphs begins:”I went to the window to inhale the world.” When I read these words a feeling of excitement swept over me. To inhale the world. What a joyous and exhilarating thought! I thought to myself: ” This is what I want to do.” Everyday. And so as I continue to wade my way through this quite long book, I return often to the page whose corner I turned down, to remind myself of my own endeavor.
This morning I was blessed to wake up on the North Shore of Lake Superior. I opened my eyes to look out the window that overlooks the water to see the waxing moon shining through the leafless trees making a pathway of silver light on the frigid water. I lay in the warmth of my bed trying to inhale the sight, its beauty, its stillness. I allowed my lungs to fill deeply with the power of the scene. Inhale.
Breathing out the shard of a disturbing dream I had had earlier, I breathed in the gift my window offered. The moon helped perspective float into my consciousness and I felt grounded in the ever-turning goodness of Creation. Out on the lake the shimmering ice chunks moved about, driven by a current I cannot see but whose presence is known. The Spirit and the unseen current have much in common. I inhaled once again allowing this truth to wash over me.
Of course, inhaling the world brings not only beauty and peace but also pain and uncertainty. To inhale the world I must see the fragile lives of people in turmoil and in harm’s way. It also means knowing the underbelly of a world often gone mad with greed, a world that forgets the intricate ways in which we are woven together..human..creature..soil..
water…life.
To truly inhale the world we must breathe in all of it. But that is really the beauty, isn’t it? To be touched by the deep wonder and vulnerability of being alive means to embrace and inhale the fullness of all life has to offer. It is in those experiences when we come face to face with the Mystery of the One whose exhale brought us into being. It is in those moments when our grateful hearts find a connection we often name as prayer.
Out on the Big Lake the sun is showing its first light, spreading a show of pale pink against an even paler blue. I am standing at my window. Inhaling.