Reciprocity

I've been staying at a community farm for the last couple of weeks and one of the men here said something today while hosting a morning circle that floored me. He said something like, “Our breath is a reminder that we are living in constant reciprocity. We breathe in and we receive from the earth and are sustained. We breathe out and we give to the earth and sustain the lives of others.” He meant plants. 

But, wow! The idea that we can’t not live in reciprocity. No reciprocity of breath equals a quick death. The immediacy of it… There's no way around it. And I have no doubt that that's equally true for longer cycles of reciprocity like the reciprocity of humans with one another, the reciprocity of nations, or of humans with the planet. It's just that I think we lose sight of the immediacy in cycles that take decades, or centuries. 

Sure, we might be able to get away with it for a while, but I think we box ourselves into ever more dangerous corners. Let's let our breath be a reminder to choose love and choose paths of connection for each other's mutual benefit.