{"id":803,"date":"2009-12-10T05:21:30","date_gmt":"2009-12-10T05:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/2009\/12\/fresh-morning-what-it-means-to-be-alive.html"},"modified":"2009-12-10T05:21:30","modified_gmt":"2009-12-10T05:21:30","slug":"fresh-morning-what-it-means-to-be-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/12\/fresh-morning-what-it-means-to-be-alive.html","title":{"rendered":"Fresh Morning: What It Means to Be Alive"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"sun1.jpg\"“What does it feel like to be alive? Living, you stand under a waterfall. You leave the sleeping shore deliberately; you shed your dusty clothes, pick your barefoot way over the high, slippery rocks, hold your breath, choose your footing, and step into the waterfall. <\/p>\n

The hard water pelts your skull, bangs in bits on your shoulders and arms. The strong water dashes down beside you and you feel it along your calves and thighs rising roughly back up, up to the roiling surface, full of bubbles that slide up your skin or break on you at full speed. <\/p>\n

Can you breathe here? Here where the force is the greatest and only the strength of your neck holds the river out of your face. Yes, you can breathe even here. You could learn to live like this. And you can, if you concentrate, even look out at the peaceful far bank where you try to raise your arms. What a racket in your ears, what a scattershot pummeling! <\/p>\n

It is time pounding at you, time. Knowing you are alive is watching on every side your generation’s short time falling away as fast as rivers drop through air, and feeling it hit.” <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

— Annie Dillard (“An American Childhood”)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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She was a founding editor at Breathe magazine, and her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, Women's Health, Natural Health, Yoga Journal, Lime.com, Vegetarian Times, and ABCNEWS.com. A native New Yorker, Valerie holds an M.S. from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a B.A. from Beloit College in Creative Writing with a minor in Women's Studies. She also lived in Maui for a while where she drank green papaya juice and taught some creative writing. 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