Still Our Mother Breathes

Long, long ago, long before your father was born, before his father, and his grandfather’s grandfather, well before the clatter and clash of man’s clamoring and the noise of his wars, our Great Mother breathed. 

In one great breath she blew out the stars and suns that burn and shine across the boundless distance.  Then she inhaled and she was pleased. She exhaled again, and there came the earth, green and wet and full of life, birds in the trees and fish in the sea, cows in the field and beetles in the earth. Our Mother inhaled and she was pleased.

She blew out her breath a third time, long and slow, blowing over the surface of the earth, and there came men, and there came women, and laughing children, dancing and singing beneath the sun. She inhaled again and was pleased.

Then our Great Mother whispered one single word, and that is all.

Now there are some who say that the word was LIVE and they would have us understand the Mother’s blessing of life and health, heartbeats and respiration, and many pleasant days. And others say the word is LOVE. Them that say so teach that we should love one and all with our every breathing breath. And mayhap they’re right, both them that say LOVE and those who would say LIVE.

But when I am still and listen for that whisper on the wind, the word I hear is LONG for life is long and love is long and we long for both. Deep longings and deep breaths, and still our Mother breathes.