Monday, October 28, 2019

Leah Lying Face Down in the Grass

Note: Thanks to artist Kellie Meisl for this amazing image.

It's time that I sit down and write the story that is begging to come out.
The only problem is that I don’t have a clue what it’s about.
It has something to do with the 
profound. The sacred sound of eternity and 
an awareness of 
present moment by present moment.
I think the main character’s name could be 
Leah. A name that means “weary.”
Here she is, still in her turquoise and black pajamas, mid-day.
She is sitting cross legged in her study
meditating. But she has trouble staying focused.
So she gets up and opens the door
and steps outside into the wet grass.
The day is gray and rain is certain.
Less clear, I am, but I think Leah is a reporter,
or at least she was to start. Now she is looking 
to break her own heart.
Open.
Her chest aches with scissored frustration. 
She has written no less than
three million words and still 
it’s a bitch to face the 
white screen. Over and over and over again.
So instead of trying, she drops to her knees and lays
her nose right into the grass and it smells like 
something she cannot possibly describe in words.
At that moment, she is certain OF ONE THING ONLY:
that she cannot write the story
the way she used to.
Once upon a time is no more.
That way she used to lay down line after line of 
velvety prose in words that poured endlessly
out of vivid
movie
pictures
rolling
through
her
mind.
ALL GONE.
No wonder Leah is scared shitless.
No wonder she cannot seem to lay
a single thing down on paper except
colorful splotches of paint.
It’s all just a silence.
She comes back through the back door
of her study realizing this: in the quiet stillness
is something like a
sumptuous pink flower
or a navy blue wave or a sparkling glimmer of
sun on endlessly shifting water.
Now Leah sees that this is not the time
to panic. She ought to know by now
that one thing follows another
and life keeps throbbing a new.
HOPE.
She returns to a seated position 
and lights a candle and starts over
again
in every moment.

Wednesday, October 02, 2019

Feel Yourself Being Bathed in Light

If you want to feel more relaxed, and more in touch with the energy and mystery of the universe, try this meditation led by teacher Sally Kempton, who has been meditating for more than 40 years.

Start by finding a seat where you can sit upright with your back erect. Feel your sitz bones on the chair. The muscles of the lower body will hold you up.
Draw air into your lungs and abdomen. Let the air fill your entire body, legs and arms. Then release all the air, allowing your crown to rise and lengthen. Repeat this a couple times.
Allow your breath to return to natural rhythm.
Now with your eyes closed, become aware of a star of light overhead.
 The light pulses with love and energy. With an inhalation, allow the light to flow down through your body.
Feel a gentle flow of particles of light passing down through the crown of your head into your face and neck. With exhalation, let the light spread further through the body. With every inhalation and exhalation, feel more and more light expand through your chest and abdomen and hips and thighs and feet.
Your meditation is an invitation to the light to flow through your body. Allow each breath to draw in light. Fill yourself with radiance. You are light. Little by little, let yourself open to this. If thoughts arise simply come back to the sensation of light flooding and filling your body.
Notice how the breath becomes deeper and how the body begins to open. Feel the light above your crown has spread out to surround your body like a luminous egg. You may feel the light coming in all the pores of your body.
Perhaps you can allow yourself to be breathed by this powerful light. Allow yourself to fully bathe in this light.
Sense the presence of the luminous egg. Sense the way the light flows through your body into your pores. You are being breathed. The ocean of air that surrounds us radiates with light. This ocean of energy and light is breathing you. Can you just open to being breathed? Can you allow the deep presence and relaxation to fill your body. Let yourself be with the presence, with the light, relaxing into the universe’s intention to hold and love you.
Allow yourself to remain for as long as you like with this gentle flow of light and breath through your body.