Between Breaths

When people ask me what they can do to get a "taste of zen" I suggest that they take a few minutes and concentrate on what happens when they breathe. Specifically, that moment between exhale and inhale. There, in that tiny moment, is the hitch in time when there is no air left to sustain us and our body desperately needs take in oxygen. What exists in that space between breaths? Everything is there! It is THE moment when life and death meet. If you don't take in another breath you die. It is that simple. What does that moment hold for you and what does it mean for you? What do you observe and experience when you put yourself fully in just that moment? Do you think of the past or the future? Do any of the things that make you mad, happy, sad, annoyed, joyful show up? I don't think they will. All that will show up is the need, in that split second, to take in another breath in order to keep living. When you take the time to be with just that life and death moment then just how much does all the rest of it matter? Do all those little things that seemed so important, so much life and death still seem to be there or, do they fade away to be replaced by just the moment of the need to breathe?