Playing With Words

Aspiration, or

The Breathing Into Your Dreams 

I have
always been intrigued with words that have to do with breathing, and aspiration is no different.  What intrigues me is that such words have
come to mean other things that have to do with desire, success, and creativity.  Why is that? 
How did this come to be?  Alas, it
is not the purpose of this little piece to answer such questions.  Instead I simply want to dive into one
particular word related to the breath—aspiration–with
the hopes it will inspire (another breathing word) you to keep striving to
reach your dreams and visions.

Aspiration comes directly from the word aspirate, which means, “an audible
breath.”  As far back as the 1500’s this
meant a certain kind of “breathing into something,” as in a desire or striving
for a goal.  Aspirate, in turn, comes from aspire,
which is Latin, aspirare, meaning, “to
breathe.”  And if we look a little deeper
into aspirare, we come to the root of
it all—spiritus—spirit—the breath of life.*

What keys do
these old meanings hold for us and the living of our dreams?  The first is the importance of breathing—literal, physical
breathing.  The more we practice deep,
belly breathing the clearer our heads become, the clearer our hearts become, the
more focused and energized we become.  We
spend less time on frivolous resentments and disappointments.  We are able to keep moving with vitality.  Learning to breathe properly is the great key
to living ones dreams.  And there’s more.

The
implication of the roots of aspiration
is clear: breath is related to life (obviously), but we are not only referring
to staying alive physically.  We are
talking about being truly alive to our dreams, or deepest, God-given
desires.  Once we begin striving towards
these our life blossoms into fullness. 
It’s the same when we see something beautiful, majestic, and our bodies
involuntarily inhale with a delicious element of surprise, and when we exhale,
we feel a deep sense of relief and gratitude—we feel fulfilled in that
moment.  True beauty does that to us.  It’s the same for living our dreams.  As we move towards them—planning, striving,
playing towards them, our breathing deepens in and out with the activity.  We feel inspired as the creativity flows in,
and we expire all of the doubts and fears as we move, step by step, towards our
goal.

Interestingly,
one of the old connotations of aspire
is “to pant with desire,” as in longing and devotion. 

“As the deer
panteth for water, so my soul longs for thee (Psalm 42:1).”

The original
Hebrew word for panteth, means to “long
for.”  So when we are living our dreams,
when we are on fire with passion for our dreams, when we are living the life we
love, we will be panting with desire, we will be truly alive. 

And we can
go still further. When we are living our dreams we are fulfilling the desires
of the Divine, for we are, each and every one of us, born to shine.  God desires that for us—God breathes it into
us, like someone breathing into a flute. 
We get to play our own tune that is based on the breath and music of the
Divine. One could say then all of our desires and dreams are one desire, one
dream—to live as children of God.  As we
move towards leading this life, the brighter we shine, the more fully we are
able to breathe—freely, unconstricted, fully.

And it all starts
with breathing.  All aspirations, all
aspiring and inspiration comes from breathing. 
So breathe fully of your dreams, and dance.  Breathe fully the breath of the spirit of
God—it is a gift flowing through you, and watch your life spill over into an
abundance that is not only lavish, but never ending.

*All
etymology information comes from the excellent Online Etymology Dictionary

Copyright Joseph Anthony of the Wonder Child Blog