Breath in

Where the Cool Winds Blow - written by Davy Rasmussen
Song Lyrics


Do you think we can hear the sounds the earth makes when she breaths? I think I heard the planet inhale and exhale while on my trip along the Maine coastline.  Each time I walk or sit along the shore I can hear it.  It's that moment when the ocean pulls the sea, like a giant gulp of air into her lungs, and draws it back from the shore and then suddenly exhales with a gust of water that comes crashing back against the rocks.  The repetition is as trustworthy as the tick of a clock.  It's so constant and true.  As I lay in bed, I can still faintly hear it in the distance. While I sleep tonight my chest will continue to rise and fall with breath and bring life into my body, without any conscious thought of my own, and so does the sea.  I wake up in the middle of the night and she still is breathing in and breathing out, wave upon wave, bringing life to all that live on this magnificent planet of ours.

We are staying at a cozy bed and breakfast on Deer Isle called Breathing Spaces.   I love the name as it alone recalls in my memory all the wonderful places we have sat on this trip and quietly inhaled the sweet essence of Maine.

There we are sitting on an open deck at a quaint seaside restaurant with lobster boats going in and out of the harbor. The sun finally slips behind the horizon and I inhale that wonderful smell of the steamers still dripping from my chin. There we are on top of the highest peak on the eastern shore. After the hike to the summit my sweat now feels cool and refreshing on my skin as the breeze from the ocean climbs its way up the mountains in Acadia National Park and splashes me in the face.  What a spectacular 360 degree view to inhale.

There we are sitting by a babbling brook that is only a few miles away from meeting and becoming part of the sea. We have a picnic lunch and inhale that wonderful smell of the balsam pine trees enclosing us in our own little fortress of nature. There were so many other breathing places too that will linger in our dreams and memories from this journey along the coast of Maine.  As our plane is about to land back in Tennessee, the pilot informs us that the temperature is a balmy 102 degrees.   How I long now for just one more breath of that cool, Maine, summer, ocean air.