Good morning.
Welcome to Looking in from the Outside.
Today we are going to spend a little time in the morning in nature.
We're going to give thanks to the cardinal points.
Let's begin with breathing.
I'd like you just to kind of center in on your breath.
Don't try to force it.
Just kind of feel it flowing in and out,
Knowing that every breath brings life and communion with the life around you.
For in your breath lies the breaths of countless others,
Living,
Crawling ones,
Two-legged,
Four-legged,
Hoppers,
Flying ones,
Swimming ones,
Many-legged too.
We all breathe.
We all take the earth and the atmosphere within to us.
Now take a deep breath.
Feel your lungs all the way to the top and hold it.
And let it out through your mouth.
Another one in through your nose.
And out through your mouth.
And back to your normal breathing pattern.
Don't try to force it.
Try to pay attention to where it's entering your body.
You feel it in your nose,
You feel it in the back of your mouth,
Your throat,
And your belly.
Just let it happen.
This next part you can do either seated with your eyes closed and envisioning,
Or you can stand and face the directions that I talk about.
Many cultures have used the directions as a way of passing time or marking time as it passes.
We're going to be looking at them and welcoming them through our day.
The first,
Where the sun comes up,
I always face the east.
So turn to face the east,
And that is the direction where the sun comes up.
Welcome.
I think of east as an anticipation of a day that is about to begin,
As the sky lightens from a dark,
Deep purple to a lighter purple to an orange to blue to white to the sun cresting over the horizon.
Those are all things that I think about as I anticipate the coming of a new day.
What are the things you wanted to accomplish?
It's difficult because I'm a list maker,
And as I make lists,
I try to figure out all those things I want to complete and get done.
Then I face the east,
And I feel the flow of air going into my lungs and out,
And I realize that I can't control all,
But I can anticipate a day filled with wonder,
A day filled with lessons from every living thing,
From every non-living thing,
From being a part of this great mystery.
I give thanks to the east for this beautiful day.
Now I turn towards the south.
It's the south that I turn to when I'm looking to give gratitude.
The south has the sun.
From where we are in the Midwest,
Looking towards the south,
The sun kind of rises as we head towards the winter.
The sun's setting farther and farther to the south.
With gratitude,
Though,
I look to the south because it is that warmth,
That amazing life spirit that the sun brings and that the warmth brings to our planet.
Living things all depend on the sun.
All life here depends on the sun.
It is good to have gratitude.
So thank you and greetings to the south.
And now I turn towards the west.
It is to the west where I look as I try to recall those things about my past day,
Where I realize the things that went well and the things that didn't go so well.
Those cultures look to the west as a sort of a sunset of their own lives and that their path should lead them in a spiritual or sacred way.
May we all look to our path,
But only to look to that which is in front of us.
And as we look behind us and we recall,
May we see the path that we've laid and feel that it is good.
So greetings to the west.
May I lay a path that is worth following.
And now I look to the north.
The north brings the cold winds and the darkness.
Native people used to say that the darkness or the north winds brought on a contemplative spirit,
A spirit of peacefulness,
Of sleep,
Of slumber,
Of slowly getting ready for the coming year,
A time to gather around fires and tell stories,
A time for family.
As we look to the north,
May we look to our families.
May we look to those things around us that help keep us warm,
Keep us centered.
So welcome to this day to the north.
May you bring us all peace.
Now without turning,
I look down at my own feet and I envision this world that I've landed on,
That I sit here on.
I thank the earth for supporting us,
For giving me strength,
For giving me some place to put down strong roots.
As recordings go,
You can't always plan how things will turn out.
I've always liked airplanes.
They could somehow punch beyond this groundliness that we have,
Stretch their wings high.
So with that,
I'll turn towards the sky.
Thank you,
Sky,
For the air that we breathe,
For keeping out the harmful rays and allowing that which we need to survive the sunlight to come through.
I will end this with a bit of silence,
But I'm going to leave you with a contemplative thought.
There are two that I think about every day,
Multiple times.
The first one is in ancient native culture,
There is this saying that literally means we are all connected.
That means we're connected to all things living and nonliving.
And that is metakuyasan.
The second thing I want to leave with you is from ancient Celtic culture.
What I like about this one is it fits well with metakuyasan.
And that's fitchifauche.
And what that means is that everything is interwoven throughout.
May you have a blessed day.
