Our heartbeat is a magnificent thing.  We all have one.  It makes rhythm of our lives and connects us to something bigger, more universal, the earth and the smallest things, an even more basic level.

Studies show that if you sing together, your heartbeat actually aligns with each other and parts of the music.  As breath aligns, so does the heart.

This week I have been thinking a lot about heartbeats because these past few weeks have been so full of life and death…the ending of heartbeats and the beginnings of others.

A few weeks ago, a 98 year old heart with a beat ended surrounded by love and peace.

And a few days ago, my new nephew, Owen was born with a strong heartbeat.

And a few days ago, a beloved public theologian who made a mark on so many lives, mine included, felt her heartbeat stop at 37.  This one was so hard because it was so close to my own timeline of heartbeat.  Rachel Held Evans has left a whole in the Christian writer sphere.

Heartbeats end and begin all the time.

Today a heartbeat will enter the world and may also end.  And that heartbeat is on my heartbeat.

On Sunday afternoon, after walking around a neighborhood with a new friend and his 10 month old baby, I went down to the subway to get home. I could hear music as I entered and quickly realized that there was a high school choir (probably on a tour of some sort) singing in the subway station. I don’t blame them, the acoustics in some of these stations is pretty great. They were standing in a circular clump and their voices melded together. Each breath was taken as one and I though to myself, “I bet their hearts are beating together too.”  They continued on the train and moved with me and all of a sudden it felt like church on a sunday afternoon on the subway train.  I think that’s when my heart aligned with theirs.

The heart….thudding along, keeping our lives going and moving and keeping a beat….what a marvelous thing.