God is dynamically present in every breath and heartbeat. In each breath we draw, the Spirit gives life. Learning to reclaim the deep, nourishing breaths of infancy is part of basic training not only in health and movement classes, but in prayer and meditation practices around the world. The deep, full breathing required to sing may well have similar importance in praying well: nothing reminds us more literally than inbreathing and outbreathing that we continually receive life and must continually release what we have received in order to receive again.
Our love has been anything but perfect and anything but static. Inevitably there have been times when one of us has outrun the other and has had to wait patiently for the other to catch up. There have been times when we have misunderstood each other, demanded too much of each other, been insensitive to the other's needs. I do not believe there is any marriage where this does not happen. The growth of love is not a straight line, but a series of hills and valleys. I suspect that in every good marriage there are times when love seems to be over. Sometimes these desert lines are simply the only way to the next oasis, which is far more lush and beautiful after the desert crossing than it could possibly have been without it.