Meditation on Nishmat Kol Chai Yivarech et Shimcha, Adonai Eloheinu
Great-horned owl
coconut palm, silver fish,
jack in the pulpit, trillium, lady's slippers, cabbage moths,
mosses, ferns, roses, mugwort,
stinging nettles, touch me nots, forget-me-nots,
red-bellied woodpeckers, sapsuckers, rotifers,
dandelions, grasshoppers, aphids, lady bird beetles, termites.
The breath of all life will praise Your name, Adonai, our G!d.
Listen carefully! Listen to the breath of all life, hear it, feel it, imagine it praising The Breath, The One.
the great blue whale, the humpack, the microscopic zooplankton and phytoplankton,
the albatross and kestrel, the puffin, blue-footed booby, and kite,
the leatherback sea turtles, great white sharks, iridescent neons,
the floating islands of kelp,
the red, green, blue, and brown algae,
the sea otters and walruses,
the eels, skates, and rays,
the sand dollars, starfish, barnacles, and periwinkles,
all breathing in and out,
all exchanging gases with the atmosphere,
all praising the Universal Breath of Life;
the river otters, trout, black bass,
the painted turtles, green frogs, and tadpoles,
the kingfisher, great blue heron, mallard ducks,
the amoebas, paramecia, euglena,
the ciliates, rolloids, and xxxx,
the mosquitoes, flies, water skeeters,
all....
the giant sequoias, the maples, oaks, pines,
Douglas fir and lodgepole pine,
the grizzly bears and polar bears,
the elk, moose, and white-tailed deer,
the ticks and chiggers, Monarch butterflies and yellowtails,
the flu and West Nile viruses,
the squirrels, chipmunks, and rabbits.
all...
the chimpanzees and gorillas,
the lianas and bromeliads and xxx,
ceibos, cacti, and lichens,
the hummingbirds, tanagers, and trogans,
the howler and spider monkeys, oragutans,
bees, wasps, gnats,
snakes, pumas, piranhas,
the mushrooms, shelf fungi, slime molds,
the rusts and smuts,
all
the bacteria, too many to count, most unknown to human beings
the insects, too many kinds to count, most unknow to human beings,
millions, billions of species on our planet
and perhaps on xxx other planets in our galaxy
likely to be suitable for life,
all
Babies, girls, and boys,
men, women, and in between,
mothers, fathers, stepmothers, stepfathers,
aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews,
grandmothers, grandfathers, granddaughters, grandsons,
tall and short, skinny and fat,
sighted, blind, deaf, hearing,
crawling, walking running, jumping, limping, sitting, lying down,
alone, together, united, separate,
all..
Nishmat kol chai...