Inside/Outside

By Aaron Davidman

The subway the freeway the airwaves stop. The traffic the deadlines the newspaper stop. The shopping the carpool the homework stop. The iPhone the iPad the Internet stop. The politics restaurant food stamps homeless man garbage can God plan stop. The drones and the clones and the suicide belts. The attacks and the cracks in the facts and the holy arcade by the black street parade and another kid down she’s been kicked by the trade. Ones and zeros piled high as the sky and the nighttime cries while the dreamer’s awake he can’t shake the mistakes of the dizzying day.

Stop. Stop. Stop.

Catch a breath. Take a sip of cool air. Sit on the ground on a rock on a bed on a chair.

Light a candle. Take a walk. Under trees. Holding hands. Bare feet.

Breathe deep.

Close the eyes. Go inside. As the belly expands then the weight of demands have a chance to release.

Breathe deep.

Give it time to unwind. The cells need fresh air to repair.

The mind quiets. The candle burns. The time slows down. The breath is here. Always. To remind. The closest friend in the world, the breath. As the world speeds on. I breathe into rest.    

How do you renew?

What have you learned about yourself by unplugging? 

Aaron Davidman is a playwright and performer in San Francisco.

Inside/Outside

By Nachman of Breslov

Grant me the ability to be alone;

May it be my custom to go outdoors each day

Among the trees and grass - among all growing things

And there may I be alone, and enter into prayer,

To talk with the One to whom I belong.

May I express there everything in my heart,

And may all the foliage of the field -

All grasses, trees, and plants -

Awake at my coming,

To send the powers of their life into the words of my prayer

So that my prayer and speech are made whole

through the life and spirit of all growing things,

Which are made as one by their transcendent Source.

May I then pour out the words of my heart

Before your Presence like water, 

And lift up my hands to You in worship,

On my behalf, and that of my children!

What has been the most profound spiritual experience of your life?

What is your relationship with nature?

Nachman of Breslov, the founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement, lived in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in Ukraine.