The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox |
Our Sacred Air: An Original Blessing We Dare Not Take For Granted By Matthew Fox 3/16/2026 |
Last week I wrote a DM about the bombing of oil depots in Iran that left me aghast. Cats on the streets of Tehran were coughing along with every human gasping for healthy air. How dare we take air for granted! |
Several years ago I read the book, Caesar’s Last Breath by Sam Kean. Ever since, I have been living with awareness of the wonders and marvels of the air we breathe. Kean knows his science and is also an excellent storyteller. Written in 2017, his book stays with me still. Scientific research
since, including information from the Webb Telescope, no doubt can add to the story. Sextillions of molecules enter or leave our lungs each moment and some include the last breath Caesar breathed—or Jesus or Buddha for that matter. The air we |
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breathe bears traces of Cleopatra’s perfumes, German mustard gas, particles exhaled by dinosaurs or emitted by atomic bombs, even remnants of star dust from the universe’s creation. Air matters. The alchemy of air reshaped our continents, steered human progress, powered
revolutions, and continues to influence everything we do. |
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| There is nothing simple about the air we breathe—Our atmosphere is one of the most
complicated physical systems in existence. Only recently have scientists started to appreciate just how complex our atmosphere is, rivaling the human brain in both its intricacy and its fragility. Earth made our air. We don’t |
usually think about air as being created—it seems like it just is—but all planets have to manufacture their atmospheres from scratch. And despite how nasty volcanic fumes might seem, they supplied the basic ingredients on earth. Understanding our air, then, requires understanding these explosions of lava and gas…” Kean alludes to the eruption of Mount Saint Helens in 1980. (I led a retreat on Mount Saint Helens a year before it erupted. It was then
I heard for the first time the song, “We Are Dancing Sara’s Circle” from a woman co-leading the retreat with me.) Everything—even mountains, and the floor beneath us—started as a gas—"you are an ex-gas." Today oxygen comprises about 21% of our air. Approximately half comes from plants and half from microbes. The other dominant gas is nitrogen which accumulated steadily over billions of years—but oxygen is different. It “spurted” beginning around 2.3 billion years ago. About 600 million years ago, the first complex plants and animals appeared in the fossil record. In the hundreds of millions of years since, oxygen levels have
veered drunkenly, dipping as low as 15 % and rising as high as 35 %. |
When oxygen was at 35%, insects were big as giants—millipedes were a yard long, dragonflies as big as seagulls, spiders the size of tires. They were the colossal of insects, all thanks to oxygen. Most insects today are tiny—they’d suffocate otherwise. |
Diagram of thermohaline circulation, showing how the ocean is a respirator of oxygen for the entire planet. Blue lines are deep-water currents; red lines are surface currents. NASA image by Robert A. Rohde. Wikimedia
Commons. |
I
am not a scientist, so I depend on learning from scientists about creation and the world we live in. But being a student and teacher of spirituality, I am alert to spiritual language such as “thanks” when scientists utter it. Says Kean: Thankfully, plants and cyanobacteria replenish our oxygen budget every day, and what results is
Yin and yang, thesis and antithesis, perfect equilibrium. Equilibrium surely is another word for justice or balance. Kean celebrates the symmetry and beauty of oxygen and CO2 as “inspiring.” Why? Because it took so long to evolve and because there are so many more moving parts, so many more ways it could all go
wrong. Yet it doesn’t. Oak trees, birds of paradise, cyanobacteria, we’re all in this together.* |
Queries for Contemplation Are you inspired by these stories about the air we breathe and earth and
universe we live in? Are these original blessings enough to render humanity grateful enough to choose love and peace over war and competition? Are we truly all in this together? |
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Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, or read other comments and enter into dialogue, please click HERE to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. Related Reading by Matthew Fox Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.
“Sexuality and Compassion: From Climbing Jacob’s Ladder to Dancing Sara’s Circle.” in Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion, pp. 36-67.
Matthew Fox and Rupert Sheldrake, Natural Grace: Dialogues on creation, darkness, and the soul in spirituality and science.
Charles Burack, ed., Matthew Fox: Essential Writings in Creation Spirituality.
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance.
Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation.
Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality.
Confessions: The Making of a Post-denominational Priest, pp. 121, 130, 319. Books and More by Matthew and Friends! Be sure to check out Matthew's new store at MatthewFox.org, now offering books, recorded courses old and new, and special events... and don't miss our growing collection of books endorsed by Matthew on Bookshop.org! CREATION SPIRITUALITY CONVERSATIONS |
Matthew Fox offers a keynote at the Unity Earth Symposium V on The Future of
Interspirituality: From Awareness to Action, exploring the maturation of interspirituality and how shared spiritual awareness becomes structured, embodied action in the world. |
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Join Matthew Fox and Carolyn Myss in a 3-session event: "Darkness, Love and Advancing Consciousness in These Times." March 11, 18, 25, 2026 (Wednesdays) Virtual / Live Zoom Event. The Sophia Institute, 3pm PT. Learn more HERE. |
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Matthew Fox joins David Abram, Lynn Twist, and Randy Woodley as Cameron Trimble of Convergence CoLab hosts “Vision for the Common Good,” a four-session Conversation Series. Tuesdays, March 17, 24, 31, and April 7, 4:00pm-5:30pm PT Register HERE. |
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MONTHLY: Join Matthew Fox and Skylar Wilson of the Order of the Sacred Earth in a free virtual meeting for connection and networking with other mystic warriors. Last Tuesday of every month, 4:00-5:00pm PT.
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Join Matthew Fox for a Lecture, Discussion, and Q&A on “Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic—And Beyond,” an Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, Thursday, March 19, 2026, 4:00pm-5:30pm PT. Register HERE. |
Matthew Fox offers a lecture, “A Christianity for All Creation” as part of “For All Creation: A Day with Matthew Fox, Kelly Sherman-Conroy and Will Allen,” an On-site and Virtual Event presented by the Center for Ecological Regeneration, Hennepin Ave. UMC, and Garrett
Evangelical Theological Seminary in Minneapolis, MN. Saturday, April 18, 9:00am – 3:00pm Register HERE. |
Awakening the Divine Human: An Immersion in the Living Wisdom of Creation Spirituality …a week-long retreat in Sardinia, Italy, May
25-30, 2026 Join us on the sacred island of Sardinia for a deeply immersive 6-day retreat rooted in the teachings of Matthew Fox, C.G. Jung, and the ancient wisdom of the land. Set along the turquoise shores and among the Neolithic sites of this timeless Mediterranean island, this retreat invites you into a transformative journey of reconnection—with Earth, Self,
Gender, and the Divine. Learn more HERE. |
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