Breathe with the forest: transcript

Align your breath with the pulse of the forest

Where do you end, and the world begins?

It begins with breath,

the syllables of starlight,

an ancient language of the cosmos

uttered by forests, mountains and bodies.

We belong to the biosphere,

a beautifully complex system that connects us to everything.

Trees inhale our breath and use sunlight to exhale oxygen.

With each breath we take,

a rhythmic interchange that keeps the forest, and us, alive,

unfolds in an eternal cycle of reciprocity.

These trees are portals through which you leave your self-importance behind

and embody something much larger, much stranger.

We imagine ourselves as sealed-off individuals, but our bodies are porous,

suffused with the world around us,

home to thousands of microscopic symbiotic inhabitants sharing nutrients,

light and breath.

Entering the forest,

we step out of our separateness to embody something much more than human.

We discover that our idea of separation between one being and the next is an illusion.

With each breath, we exchange parts of ourselves with the wider world.

an atmosphere is sung into being,

boundless, caressing.

What is it like to be one of the largest organisms that has ever existed?

How does it feel to host a vast web of relationships that anchor an ecosystem?

The atmosphere is a co-creation of all breathing things,

and you only exist in relation to everything else.

The trees, soil, mycelium,

air and oceans are as much a part of you as your own body.

Just below your skin you are a branching being made of currents and rivers,

the world flows into you and you flow into the world.

Our collective future depends on seeing the invisible networks between us and the living Earth,

the world beyond our human senses.

Hidden in the layers of a tree, we uncover the vibrancy of life.

Nutrients pulse through the arteries in sync with a heartbeat.

Rivers of carbon pour into the soil.

From its roots to its canopy, the tree is a living bridge between the earth and the sky.

These are the tides we live in,

nourishing us inside and out,

immersing us in abundance,

as the world breathes out

and you breathe in.