As We Live And Breathe Poem by Jim Yerman

Black…white…straight…gay…all those other letters too…
Christian…Muslim…Catholic…Atheist…and Jew.

Labels can be beneficial when we use them to help guild us
but they can also be a danger when we use them to divide us.

However there is one thing we all share no label can ever take away…
We were all created…all of us…to breathe in the same way.

Basically, from our first breath…from the moment of our birth
we become a part of the rhythm…of the heartbeat of the Earth.

And we keep right on breathing as one…with no need to classify
until the day our breathing stops…until the day we die.

In between our first and last breath…we keep breathing
It matters not if we'reblack, white, straight or gay…
if we are Christians, Muslims or Catholics…
we all breathe…about 20,000 times a day.

And the reason we continue breathing in and out…the lesson I believe
is to teach us life only works its wonders when we give as much as we receive.

Perhaps instead of looking to divide ourselves…
we'd do better to throw all those labels away…
and remember how the simple act of breathing
unites us everyday.

There is a harmony in how we breathe together
Black, white, straight, Gay…Catholic, Muslim or Jew….
Wouldn't it be wonderful if there was that same harmony
In the way we lived together too?