what we do with the air we breathe is up to us

people spend entirely too much time breathing out.
i mean it sometimes serves wonderful purposes {see image above}    but
the air we share has bigger and better purposes than just being shot out all the time.

sometimes i wonder if people who talk a lot are trying to keep things from coming in.
they just sit and expel and spew and project
and rarely leave time to suck stuff in.

i mean
if you had a fountain that just kept recycling the same water and spewing it from the same little spout, the water would never change.
and it wouldn't have any time to be still.
it's like it's frantically trying to keep things a-flowin.
well, that's it's job.

if you have something that's constantly sending things out, how does it have time to take anything in?

on the other hand, i feel bad for vacuums.
they suck. all. the. time.
when they release stuff you get pissed because they're not doing their job.
so you kick it and curse and try and get it to continue sucking up your dust.

if you never talked you'd just have a bunch of stuff stuck inside of you like a vacuum. you can't absorb everything. you have to release stuff. you're gonna have to exhale with an open mouth.
if you always talk you're going to just keep recycling the same stuff until it all evaporates and you're gasping for air, waiting for whatever is next in line to come racing down your molars and dart out of your mouth.

i sit and watch people who talk a lot and think about all the dust they're keeping out of their mouths by constantly blowing air-filled words out. they keep talking, keeping things out.
if you're always exhaling you never have time to inhale. everyone else around them is feeding on what they're saying. people around are absorbing.

it's difficult to breathe in sometimes.
i notice that when i'm wearing something tight,
when someone is standing on my chest,
when i'm trying to run somewhere quickly,

when my life is moving too fast.

i feel like i'm constantly exhaling these days. not taking anything in.
exhaling is great.         for a while...

i like to look at the sun.
it's the easiest and most universal example of an energy release,
because that's all that it is when we talk. or exhale. or give time to things.
an energy release.
the sun stands there shining every day.
giving out light. making days warmer. making people happier.
it's a provider. it's constantly sending things out to us.

but even the sun absorbs energy. it inhales, too.

it's sometimes scary to inhale, especially after a fire
especially in a bathroom
especially in a musty basement
especially underwater
especially when you don't know what's going to come in.

but
how amazing is it when you are stuck underwater/in a bathroom/in your grandparent's basement for a while and you come out and inhale for the first time in a while? you don't know if you're going to breathe in the same yuckiness or not, but it's so great to fill your lungs. you're not exhaling and trying to keep things out anymore.
and
exhaling when you're not ready sucks. exhaling all the time sucks.
exhaling after you've filled your lungs is amazing.

breathing is awesome.
we hardly pay attention to it.
but maybe we should pay a little more attention to what we're inhaling and exhaling
and when
and how
and why.

i think we could find some beautiful things to breathe in
and in exhaling at the right times we can all better share the air we breathe.

{photo courtesy of papertissue}