Thank you for joining me for this embodied prayer,
This breath meditation in service to our remembrance.
Living an embodied,
Connected life requires us to be grounded in the present moment and in deep communication with our environment.
Meditation in nature opens our hearts and expands our awareness,
Reminding each of us that we are inherently woven like a sacred thread into a web of rhythms and relationships with the natural world.
As we make space for deep listening and feel into our reciprocal relationship with the more than human world,
We begin to sense the gifts tucked sweetly into our lives every day.
Feel into your sit spot,
Slowly and deliberately.
Take your time.
This is your sacred pause to be still,
To be with only the movement of your breath,
Allowing the living landscape to speak to you and through you,
Inviting deeper conversations as you open to receive this experience of balance,
Mutuality,
Cooperation,
Coexistence.
There's no pushing,
No striving,
No wanting,
Just simple presence,
Landing,
Centering in your stable yet buoyant seat in this beautiful turning world.
Close your eyes,
Bring your awareness to your internal landscape,
Resting the senses so that when you look outward again,
It's with a renewed vision,
An ability to perceive more sharply,
To integrate more fully.
Bring attention to the movement of your breath,
Noticing how on your inhale the body lifts,
It unfurls like a plant being drawn to the light of the sun,
Gently expanding but softly and reaching,
Filling the space around you.
On the exhale,
Notice the softening,
How the body curls inward into itself as your energy descends into the earth,
Fortifying your roots.
Spend some time here,
Inhaling deeply and exhaling fully,
Enjoying the natural flow of the breath,
Sinking into deepening connection with yourself and the rhythm of life.
Take a moment to consider your reciprocal relationship with your surroundings.
Notice how the trees around you are expelling oxygen to nourish every cell in your body.
Fill your lungs in appreciation.
Invite the breath into every peripheral point in your body.
Then exhale,
Slowly giving freely,
Just as you receive.
Now I invite you to focus on your sense of hearing,
Simply listening,
Tuning into the sounds of nature.
Take a moment to savor the natural soundscape that surrounds you.
What sound is most distant?
What is the closest sound?
Slowly open your eyes and look around your chosen space,
Continuing with your breath.
Look at the sky,
The shapes of the clouds,
The patterns of nature,
The beautiful colors,
The play of light and shadow.
Just observe,
Taking it all in.
And shift your gaze off into the distance.
Observe your place amongst the enormity of it all.
Observe the various movements,
The stillness,
Fully immersed,
Quiet,
Reflective,
And at peace.
Breathing in and out,
Feeling as if you're being breathed by an energy larger than yourself.
Sensing the life force,
The prana around you.
Restoring your being,
Reconnecting you with your deepest self.
Walking more closely to the potential of expressing what is alive within you,
Grounded with a deep unwavering trust in your own capacity for direct knowing,
And the liberation to feel what you know in your bones,
Woven back into a collaborative unfolding with life.
To close the practice,
Take a few more final deep inhalations and exhalations,
Remembering you're a child of the earth,
And welcome yourself home.
