Swirling in my head, deep fear in every cell of my body, I am looking for hope. Hope is a flame we need to keep alive. A baby is born on this planet every time you breathe in. That is hope. A child dies or is killed on every outbreath you take. That is despair. Couples come together in intimacy every time you breathe in. That is hope. A girl or woman is raped with every outbreath you take. That is despair.

We take about 23,000 breaths a day. In the day to day lives of our humanity it is becoming progressively hard to be with our breath—to stay centered as we eat, as we sleep, as we dream, as we hope. For a candle to burn it needs oxygen. The flame will extinguish without “breathing” in. May we find a way to keep the flame of hope alive. Breathe in hope. Breathe out despair.

Kabbalah is about connection—seeing the connection between what manifests here and all that swirls around and in us. It has taken 10 years for scientists to land a man-made probe on a moving comet—not just 10 years of thinking, actually 10 years of travel—requiring precise calculations along 3.5 billion miles. Philae launched form her mother, Rosetta, and landed successfully after a bump or two and then the batteries went out. But data was gathered for 64 hours. Scientists are hopeful that samples taken from the comet will help connect the dots to conditions that allowed for life on earth. While the scientists are hopeful their accomplishment serves to ignite hope. If we can land a probe a 100 million miles away from earth on a comet that measures 2.5 miles and is travelling some 20 miles per second, perhaps we can probe into the recesses of the human heart to connect the dots that create the conditions for human life to continue on our planet.

It is a giant leap that mankind must make. Otherwise there is no hope and we will take our last breath here on earth. Let’s hope the batteries of the pacemaker still have life.