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Fresh Air |
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In her 1859 Notes on Nursing, Florence Nightingale wrote, "The want of fresh air may be detected in the appearance of patients sooner than any other want." A century and a half later, microbiologists are proving her right. A single cubic meter of indoor air can contain up to 10 million bacterial cells. Preliminary studies indicate that simply opening windows can cut the rate of infections acquired in hospitals. (Some 2,000 U.S. residents die of such infections each week.) It is not that outdoor air has fewer microbes; it just has healthier ones than much of the indoor air we breathe.[1]
It's summer in South Texas, so I probably spend well over 90% of my time shut up in air-conditioned buildings. After reading about the microbiology of indoor air, I may start opening more windows.
If fresh air is good for the body, what about for the soul? Has some once-fruitful discipline become a stale routine? When you came to faith, or found your path in prayer, did you shut the windows on new ideas or new ways of praying?
Every pastor knows the seven last words of a church: "We've never done it that way before." This is no less true for the individual spirit. The life of faith is not calcified. It is truly alive - growing, changing, and being led by the Spirit into new journeys and new discoveries.
J. Philip Newell warns about the dangers of a domesticated faith, "contained within the walls of a sacred building [or] restricted to the boundaries of a religious tradition." He goes on to write, "The Book of Genesis portrays all things as born out of the wild wind that swept over the face of the waters. Are we expecting it to be entirely different in our lives?"[2]
Open some windows. Let the refreshing winds of the Spirit blow through!
[1] Bruce Barcott, "Earth's Last Unexplored Wilderness," Discover, July/August 2012, pp. 35-40, 92.
[2] J. Philip Newell, The Book of Creation, Canterbury Press, 1999, pp. 20-21. |
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Air is Freedom
-by Jan
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Francis in
the Wind
Statue in Assisi |
To this day I still sleep on my right side. I always have. The soothing lambent breezes wafting in from Corpus Christi Bay cuddled me in their comforting embraces as I lay in my bed pushed up to the window sill. In fact, I usually slept on my pillow in the window sill, on my right side, so that I could slink closer to the gentle gusts. In these youthful nights growing up on the Gulf Coast before the days of air conditioning, I hardly knew the difference between indoors and out. Only a somewhat rusty screen separated me from the fig tree that grew in the corner near the seashell driveway, from the rustling palm fronds, from the squawk of the seagull, and from . . . freedom!
St. Francis of Assisi, for sure, was familiar with this freedom. In one of his sermons to his 'sisters and brothers of the sky,' he reminded his bird friends: "In every beat of your wing and every note of your song praise Him. He has given you the greatest of the gifts, the liberty of the air...."
Air is freedom. Air is freeing. Air is free. Let's not forget.
Francis continued, "Clearly, Creator loves you most dearly. His gifts flow forth in abundance, so please be careful of the sin of thanklessness, and always sing out your praises for the Lord, our God!" |
Soul Windows Greeting Cards
Fill someone's heart with inspiration.
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