Take a deepening breath in. On the exhale feel the spirit quieting and holding you until you grow easy. Release the fluxing. Go swimming.

“Swimming, One Day in August” by Mary Oliver*

It is now, I said,
for the deepening and quieting of the spirit
among the flux of happenings.

Something had pestered me so much
I thought my heart would break.
I mean, the mechanical part.

I went down in the afternoon
to the sea
which held me, until I grew easy.

About tomorrow, who knows anything.
Except that it will be time, again,
for the deepening and quieting of the spirit.

*from Red Bird: Poems (Beacon Press, 2008)