We All Breathe

Description

It was another three years and another accumulation of resources prepared for use at West Hill United, a spiritually non-exclusive progressive community growing out of the Christian tradition that came together in this third collection, We All Breathe. Although the explanation of West Hill sounds like a mouthful, when it is put on paper or experienced within the context of a gathering of inspired and inspiring people, it is, simply put, beauty. In this collection, the evolution insists that what we are engaged in is no longer prayer; it is part of becoming the poetry of the world and of the human experience.

From the preface to this third collection, “We are an amazing family, we humans. Diverse in every aspect, we are yet strikingly similar. Our physical characteristics display variations on the typical – two eyes, arms, legs; ten toes and fingers; and a head crowned with hair of natural shades ranging from white through blonde, red, and brown to black. We thrive on the same nutrients delivered through an astonishing array of foods prepared in both ancient and ever more creative ways. We use the same parts of our brains, more or less, to explore radically different parts of our world and to engage in dramatically opposed and sometimes violently defended ideas. We all know joy, sorrow, exhilaration, and despair and we breathe our way – in and out – through them. Each one of us was born; each one of us will die. In between those two events, we all breathe.”

The cover of We All Breathe again comes from an antique Victorian novel in my husband’s collection.  Hurst and Company published Mrs. Mary J. Holmes’ Dora Dean or The East India Uncle in 1858.