If we stop and listen, become still and quiet enough to be rightly awed by the nature of our lives, we invariably find ourselves in conversation with some small voice, close and familiar, calling us to become better people, to be wiser, more focused, clear, at peace. This deep listening, this call, this ache to be good and whole, is not as particularly noteworthy as it is ordinary. After all, this is what we’re made for. To be cleansed, to love.

     But if we are blessed, and somehow find ourselves in this becalmed state of heart, we might find yet another challenge awaits us: What do we do now? Here, we will undoubtedly feel an ancient pull in one of two seemingly opposite directions. Does our spiritual nature call us to retreat farther and farther from the noise and chaos of a world seemingly bent on its own destruction? And there pray, meditate, and calm our hearts, chanting ancient and sacred teachings, one less soldier in the war, quietly sending out healing, freely offering our own inner peace?

     Or, newly awake in the power of love, does our love become action, our words become flesh, and our spiritual practice and our kindness suddenly inseparable, as we roll up our sleeves to do what we can to heal the sick, bind up the wounded, feed the hungry, comfort the bereaved?

     Tending the inner life of our spirit and lovingly offering our generosity in the world are inseparable as the breath – the inhale and the exhale. Both are required for life to continue, to grow… If we are to be real, living people, we have no choice but to learn to breathe, inhale and exhale, to pay attention and be kind, stay awake and offer what we can, find peace in our hearts and offer it easily and joyfully to the first distressing face we encounter.