Hi,
I'm Barbara Murray Lane.
Welcome to my series of heart-centered meditations based on the seasons of the year within a garden.
I invite you to join me in exploring the exterior landscape as well as your personal interior landscape of each season,
Cultivating your own garden in your heart as you move through each seasonal meditation.
Simply listening with openness and curiosity,
Following your own heart's messages,
Perhaps having a journal nearby to record any thoughts or reflections.
And so,
My friend,
Let's begin.
Come with me.
Listen,
Imagine,
And dream as you walk the path towards the garden of your heart,
Discovering all the gifts and wonder the season of spring has to offer you.
Awakening.
I am listening to the raindrops giving hope to thirsty gardens.
I am listening to orchards pregnant with new life.
I am listening to the flowers bursting forth in rainbow colors.
M.
Vantaka.
Beginning with the breath.
This breath in and this breath out,
Settling any restless parts as you rest into a comfortable position to start.
And now imagining a path beneath your feet that invites you to come and travel with her.
Awakening to the spring energy,
Imagining walking along your path,
Noticing the rhythm of your breath,
Matching the pace of your steps,
Dampened earth beneath your feet,
A rain the night before,
A slight chill to the wind that moves around you,
The melody of songbirds returning from the south,
Hues of pinks and blues staining the morning sky.
Seeing a garden up ahead just visible as the day breaks open,
Calling you,
Beckoning you,
Inviting you to discover what gifts your garden has to offer on this early spring morning with this breath in and this breath out.
And so entering through the gate into your garden.
Continuing along the path,
Noticing what is beginning to awaken in this garden of yours.
What new life is pulsing,
Pushing up through the earth after the long winter months?
What new life is stretching towards the sun?
Perhaps the colorful faces of crocuses peeking through snow not yet melted.
Maybe the budding of green shoots of daffodils pushing up through unraked leaves,
The greening of the earth here and there as you spiral deeper along the garden's path.
What colors are you seeing?
Any animals nearby?
Squirrels,
Chipmunks,
Birds?
Perhaps part of your garden seems unkept,
Untidy.
The lingering effects of winter tucked in a corner here and there,
Beneath bushes or piles randomly littered in garden beds.
You take all this in as you continue to walk along the path,
Frozen ground softening with the sun's attention,
Warming the earth so feet sink into the mud below,
Just as new roots are sinking into the earth all around you.
Spring offers messages of hope and renewal as the earth begins to shift and expand again with the return of light,
Warmth,
Movement,
Activity and sound.
The chirping back and forth of birds,
A robin or two doing their sideways dance looking for worms.
A rustle in some budding bushes catches your attention.
Is that a rabbit hiding there?
Rabbits also offer messages of new life and hope.
Curious,
You continue along the path,
Noticing all the aspects of spring in your garden.
The awakening of spring all around,
A dawning of possibilities,
A chance to start anew,
Rebirth.
All this reflected in your garden as you move along the winding path.
Up ahead wild shrubs and vines form an archway that bends over you,
Brushing the top of your head with its new growth as you tunnel deeper into your garden.
The budding of a forsythia bush greets you as you emerge.
Hearing the gurgling of water nearby,
Feeling a freshness,
A coolness,
Crossing over a brook rock by rock,
Finding yourself by a waterfall that sits in the center of your precious garden,
Nourished by the sacred spring fed by the mountains waters far beyond.
The rabbit sits nearby watching.
The same rabbit you saw earlier,
A welcome visitor offering you a gentle and hopeful presence as you explore further into the center of your garden.
Noticing a bench by the waterfall,
An invitation to rest a while by the water's edge.
So you do.
Sitting in the presence of what you know to be a sacred place in the heart of your garden.
Clouds moving overhead as morning awakens further,
A slight chill to the wind reminding you of the season past.
Feeling the nourishing and healing qualities of water seeping into you.
An awakening seems to be happening deep inside.
Like your garden,
You can sense the new growth emerging just as the earth welcomes spring,
Drinking in the healing waters,
Melting frozen parts,
Moistening cracks and healing scars and old wounds,
Softening these frozen and dried out places,
Seeping into tired thoughts,
Exhausted states,
Weary parts,
Releasing what is not nourishing you,
Choosing to embrace what is emerging from within,
Sensing seedlings sprouting underneath it all,
Nourished by the waters of the waterfall and the warmth of the sun overhead,
Inviting you to savor the gifts of spring,
Renewing a sense of hope in your ability to begin again,
A fresh start that the season of spring offers you.
Lingering here,
Resting here for as long as you need,
Watching the rabbit nearby,
A guide that embodies all that is awakening and all that is hopeful,
Vibrant and new.
Wondering what is gestating and waiting to bloom in the darkness of the tender earth below.
What new life is asking to be born in your heart's landscape?
What might be awakening for you?
Can you name these possibilities?
Affirmation.
I welcome the vibrant,
Fresh and jubilant gifts of spring as it awakens my heart to all that is growing inside of me.
I welcome the vibrant,
Fresh and jubilant gifts of spring as it awakens my heart to all that is growing inside of me.
Take leave when you are ready with blessings and gratitude.
Journey back to the path,
To the place of your departure,
And then back to the present moment,
Recording any part of this journey in your journal.
I welcome the vibrant,
Fresh and jubilant gifts of spring as it awakens my heart to all that is growing inside of me.
I welcome the vibrant,
Fresh and jubilant gifts of spring as it awakens my heart to all that is growing inside of me.
I welcome the vibrant,
Fresh and jubilant gifts of spring as it awakens my heart to all that is growing inside of me.
I welcome the vibrant,
Fresh and jubilant gifts of spring as it awakens my heart to all that is growing inside of me.
