Stop for a moment: where are your thoughts right now?

What emotion or emotions are present for you?

How does your body feel?

If you are like most people, your thoughts may be in the future  – perhaps concerned or anxious; or they have traveled back into the past – preoccupied with regret or sadness. You may be experiencing pain or discomfort – or conversely, perhaps a sense of relaxation.

Our thoughts, emotions and bodily sensations change moment to moment. Our breath, though, is constantly here – available to us, while we are alive. What if breathing in and out became a blessing? What if being alive was enough?

In the song “I’m Alive” by Kenny Chesney (joined by Dave Mathews), we are invited to embrace breathing as a blessing; and being alive as a gift. The message is simple yet profound: choosing to dwell in gratitude and aliveness rather than in regret and disappointment.

I invite you to take a listen and ask yourself: what would it take for breathing in and out to be a blessing in my life and for today to be enough?

In my own life, I’ve welcomed this song by Kenny Chesney and Dave Mathews and embraced the words as my morning and evening prayer. Does this song speak to you as well?