Hello and welcome to Divine Etymologies.
My name is Amy and I've created this guided meditation for us to explore together the ways in which we access the divine in our everyday lives,
Specifically through the contemplation of language,
Words,
And etymology,
Or the history of words.
Understanding the energy that words carry can enhance our meditative practice.
First we'll examine the etymology of today's chosen word and then a related meditation will follow.
Let's begin.
Today's word is energy,
But before we talk about its etymology I'd like to share a story with you.
I had an unusual experience recently while out for a midday walk.
Close to my office there's a large athletic centre,
A massive construction of brick,
Steel,
And glass.
Metallic designs sweeping high up to the sky.
Enormous,
Impressive,
Powerful.
I'd walked past it numerous times before,
Always vaguely aware of its size and power,
But focusing more on all the natural things around it instead.
The grass,
The flowers,
A butterfly,
The sky.
But on this day,
As I approached the building,
I glanced up from the greenery to the grey silvery sheen in the sun,
And to my amazement,
There before my eyes,
This strong solid structure no longer appeared solid.
It shimmered in the light.
It looked as if it was humming or vibrating,
Like a hologram or a mirage.
I watched it do this for a few spellbinding moments before everything was suddenly normal again.
I was sort of shocked.
Did I really just see that?
That's impossible.
Did that really happen?
In the absence of any concrete explanation,
I was left to contemplate the experience,
Which indeed seemed very real to me in the moment.
All I can think is that it was the universe showing me,
Reminding me,
That nothing on this earth is solid and immutable,
No matter how much it appears to be so.
Sometimes I think,
For example,
That my body is solid.
But it isn't.
I am made up of trillions of individual cells all linked together in such a way as to make me appear solid.
Similarly,
I'm tempted to think that the desk at which I write this is solid.
It stands up by itself.
It holds weight.
It doesn't seem to move under my fingertips.
But again,
On some level,
This is an illusion.
This desk's apparent form is actually innumerable individual particles that are packed so tightly together as so as to appear solid and immutable.
And if everything on this earth,
Including ourselves,
Is not in fact solid and immutable,
It means that anything can change.
Anything can become something else.
It starts with one tiny particle.
Instead of facing the daunting,
Deflating prospect of changing a monolith,
We can focus on changing a particle,
And then the ripples can change the entirety.
This is how faith moves mountains.
Now,
This isn't about bending spoons.
I'm not talking about turning an apple into an orange with the power of my mind.
But if we apply this idea to life experiences,
A breakup,
An illness,
An ongoing fear that paralyzes,
Huge,
Long-term,
Seemingly solid and immutable experiences that we feel powerless against,
We can see that we do have power to change the situation,
Or at least change how we see it and how we feel about it.
It's all about energy and vibration.
Energy illuminates everything.
Everything is made of energy.
And we often think of things in terms of their having good or bad energy,
Good or bad vibes.
The Oxford Online Dictionary defines energy as the strength and vitality required for sustained physical or mental activity.
But energy and vibration aren't just qualities that things have.
They're not passive like that.
They're active.
In fact,
The idea of ongoing activity is built right into the word energy.
It comes,
As many English words do,
From French,
And before that from Latin.
But in this case,
It's originally from the Greek,
Energia,
Meaning activity,
Action,
Operation.
And that word emerged from an ergos,
Meaning active and working,
From en,
Meaning at,
An ergos,
That works,
Which is from ergon,
Meaning work,
That which is wrought,
Business,
And action.
And all of this is related to the Proto-Indo-European root verg,
Meaning to do.
In other words,
Energy is not just strength and vitality.
It's not just a quality something has.
It's rooted in action,
In doing and working.
So,
All things have energy.
The athletic center,
My desk,
Our bodies,
Our words and thoughts and experiences.
And all things are energy.
The athletic center,
My desk,
Our bodies,
Our words and thoughts and experiences.
All teeming with minuscule components in constant motion,
Despite appearing to be solid and still.
Yes,
All is energy.
Energy is action,
And action can lead to change.
And now,
Let's meditate.
Divine Spirit,
Everything in creation teems with energy.
No matter how big or how solid,
No matter who made it,
Whether it's animate or inanimate,
Whether I can see it happening or not,
Everything and everyone on this earth is made of billions of particles,
Each shimmering and humming with energy.
This means that everything and everyone on this earth is also teeming with potential.
The potential for action,
For movement,
For change.
Something that looks one way in one moment doesn't have to look the same way in the next.
There is nothing that can't be changed.
Nothing that can't be changed.
Instead of focusing on the whole in front of me,
I see the energy of the smaller parts.
I perceive how their energy compels them to want to move,
To change,
To be wrought into something new.
They don't want to stay the same.
They're not built to stay the same.
I have constant,
Infinite creative power.
I perceive the energy,
The potential,
In every situation and in every person.
I perceive the potential for energy to shift,
Mine and theirs,
And the potential for a new experience to unfold.
When something scares me or hurts me,
Help me to picture it shimmering in the sunlight,
Like that athletic center.
Help me to see that it isn't one big,
Solid,
Frightening or hurtful thing,
But the sum of many little things.
And with that,
Help me to identify a smaller part to focus on,
To shift with my perception,
In turn,
To eventually shift the whole.
There is nothing that can't be changed.
There is nothing that can't be changed.
Thank you for listening,
And until next time,
Words carry energy,
So use them wisely.
