One day while on my usual morning walk I stopped to witness a very interesting sight. I was passing by a warehouse bordered by any ordinary chained link fence with barbed wire across the top. I noticed that a bird and then a second lighted on top of the barbed wire.

I was a bit shocked to see these delicate creatures land on this harsh surface. I thought, how did they do that and without injury? On closer inspection I noticed that they had landed not on the barbs but on the tiny spaces between them. What a metaphor!

In this chaotic world in which we live we can get caught up in the drama and experience only what our five senses reveal to us. But we truly can live “In the world but not of it”. We can escape the chaos. We simply have to find the space between the barbs. We can choose, for a time, to unplug our TVs, phones, computer and plug into the gift of Silence, Stillness, Quiet and just “Breathe”.

Thomas Merton wrote, “My breath is my prayer”. When we take a deep breath we calm the stress response and tap into a spiritual flow, stream. We can call this connection to the Divine whatever we choose. But we must “choose” to find the time to connect beyond our five senses. This will allow us to experience, even if momentarily, “Earth as it is in Heaven”.