If It's Your Birthday Today

If It's Your Birthday Today! You are here because of an unbroken chain of love and luck stretching back further than any name you know thousands of meetings, survivals, and chances taken, all of them conspiring to produce you. That alone is worth pausing for.This meditation invites you to receive what is already yours: the love of everyone who has ever known you, the uncomplicated warmth of animal companions past and present, and the quiet, ancient embrace of the natural world itself. Settle in. You are more loved than you know.

Beautiful music by Music Of Wisdom

Transcript

This is a guided meditation. Receiving love from all of life. So welcome everyone. I recently celebrated my birthday, Someone who really struggles to celebrate, And I thought of this little meditation that it might help others in a similar position. Or maybe you just can't be with loved ones today, Or you just wanted to give yourself a little gift to mark the occasion. So if it is your birthday today, Or you celebrated a birthday recently, I want you to know something very important before we begin. You made it. Another full turning of the earth around the sun, Carrying you with it. And here you are, Breathing, Present, Alive. That alone is extraordinary. Just sit for a moment with this. The odds of you being here are almost incomprehensible. Every ancestor you ever had, Going back further than any relative you know, Had to live, Had to find love, Had to choose, And had to survive. Not most of them, All of them. An unbroken chain of connection and chance, Reaching back through human history and beyond. Arriving here, In you, Breathing, And on your birthday. I invite you to find a comfortable position now, Lying down if you wish or seated with your spine gently upright, Hands resting open in your lap, Palms facing upward, An open posture for an open heart. Close your eyes and let everything you are carrying just pause for a moment. Not gone, Just set down at the threshold. You can return to it later. For now this time belongs entirely to you. Take one breath in through your nose, Slow and full. And a long, Easy breath out. Again breathing in, Receiving air. Exhale letting go. One more time, Take a deep breath in, Breathing in. And exhale releasing any tension, Breathing out. Begin to feel the weight of your body. The places where you're held. The floor, The bed, The chair beneath you. Let gravity do its work. You don't have to hold yourself up right now. You're fully supported. Bring your awareness to the soles of your feet and simply feel them. Whatever sensation is there, Warmth, Tingling, Stillness, Just notice. Let that awareness travel slowly upward into your legs, Your hips, Your abdomen. Notice the gentle rise and fall of your breath at the abdomen. This has been happening all day, Every day, For every year of your life. Your body, Breathing you, Helping you to become. Supporting life without any effort. Let your awareness continue up into your chest, Your heart space, Your shoulders, Perhaps let them soften and drop just slightly. Your throat. Jaw. Let your teeth part just a little. Your eyes resting gently in their sockets. Relax the crown of your head, Your whole body present, Breathing alive. You arrived in this body on this day, However many years ago. And today we're going to fill that body with love. I'd like you to imagine that today, On your birthday, Something remarkable is about to happen. Every being who has ever loved you, Cared for you or been glad that you exist is becoming aware of you right now, Not in any way that requires them to do anything, Not in a way that asks anything of you, Simply that their love for you, Turning in your direction, Like sunflowers turning towards the light. And it doesn't stop there, Because love doesn't only live in human hearts, It lives in the earth under your feet, In the trees that have offered you shade, In rain on the window, In the animal companions who have pressed their warm bodies against yours, In rivers, In wind, In soil, In the sea, In every living thing that shared this planet with you. All of it is offering you something. Your only task is to receive it. Let's begin close and begin to move outward. Bring to mind someone who loves you deeply and consistently. Perhaps it's someone still in your life, Or someone who has passed. Feel their face in your mind's eye. The warmth in their eyes when they look at you. Let their love travel towards you like light, And as it reaches you, Let it land. Don't deflect it or minimize it, Just let it in, Into your chest, Into your heart. Now let the circle widen. Think of people who have been quietly, Steadily glad that you exist. Old friends, Family members, People who celebrated your arrival, Who laughed with you, Who held you when you were small, Or who sat with you in difficulty. Let them all gather now at the edges of your awareness, Not crowding, Simply present, Each one in their own way sending something in your direction as a gift on this day. Now we'll go even wider still. Bring to mind teachers who believed in you, Colleagues who respected you, Neighbours whose simple kindness made a difference, People whose names you may have forgotten but whose warmth you can still feel, The friend of a friend who made you laugh once and never knew how much it meant, A stranger whose smile arrived at exactly the right moment. All of these people, All of them, In this moment, Somewhere in the fabric of your life, A thread of warmth connecting you. Imagine the feeling of their collective good wishes as a kind of golden warmth gathering around you. We'll pause here, Let it touch your skin, Let it enter through your breath. And now. . . Very gently and only if it feels right. You might even reach towards people with whom things have been complicated. People you've lost or grown apart from, Old loves, Estranged family, People who taught you something perhaps hard. You don't need to resolve anything, Just notice, Even in the complexity, That you were known as a person, As an individual worth celebrating. In whatever way you related to them, You were real to them and you existed in their world. That too is a kind of being held in mind. So we'll pause, Bringing those people to mind if it feels right and feel the love radiating from them. Now let us move to a different kind of love, A love without words, A love that's entirely uncomplicated. Bring to mind any animal companions you have known, Pets that you've loved, A childhood dog, A cat who slept on your lap, A rabbit, Hamster, A horse, Any creature who you choose to be near you or seem to. Feel the particular quality of their presence, The weight of a sleeping animal on your legs, The warmth of their fur, The sound of purring, The uncomplicated joy of a dog greeting you at the door, That full body ecstasy of your return as if you've been gone for years and the reunion was the best thing that had ever happened to them. You were loved without condition. You were enough simply by existing and returning. Let that love gather now, All of your animal companions, Past and present, Surrounding you in your mind's eye. See them at ease, Resting near you. Feel their breathing, Their solidity, Their warmth. Bring that to mind and we'll pause here, Allowing that love to radiate into your heart. And now, Beyond the ones you knew personally, Feel the broader animal kingdom. The birds that have sung outside your window without knowing your name, But who shared the air with you. The fox you caught a glimpse of once at dusk. The bees who moved through your gardens. The fish who drifted through the water you swam in. Life is everywhere, Busy, Purposeful, Alive, And you're woven into it. You have always been surrounded by living things. Even if you might feel alone today, You've never truly been alone. Just pause for a moment to expand your awareness, To contact and bring to mind this much wider field of living things and allow the love that radiates from them to penetrate you and to rest comfortably in your heart space. Now let your awareness expand beyond living creatures into the living world itself. Feel the earth beneath you, The actual ground below whatever surface is holding you now. That ground has been here for millions of years, Long before you arrived, And it received you without question the moment you were born. It has held you up every single day of your life. Today, On your birthday, Feel the earth say, I've got you, And I will always have you. Pause here and feel that solid surface of the ground beneath you, Supporting you in its own field of love. Feel the air moving through you with every breath, Air that has circled this planet for millions of years. Air breathed by every ancestor you will ever know. Air that has moved through forests, Over oceans, Across mountains. It's travelled far and long to be here with you now, On this breath. You are not separate from any of this. You are made of it. Allow the breath, The air around you, Perceiving it as a unified field of love, Allow it to settle into your heart space. Now think of water. All the rivers and rain and ocean that has touched you in this lifetime. The first bath, The summer swims, The water that has moved through your body, Renewing you, Your whole life long. Think of light, Every sunrise you've witnessed, Even the ones you slept through, Where dawn came anyway and offered itself, Whether you noticed it or not, Every sunset, Every evening sky, Every moment the world made itself beautiful with no one watching. It was all here for you. It is all here for you. Let the whole natural world, The ancient, The vast, The patient, Wrap around you now like a quiet embrace, Solid, Unhurried, Completely without expectation. Take a moment now to simply be in the centre of all of this. Feel it gathered around you, The people who love you, The animals who have known your warmth, The living world, Ancient and generous. All of it turning towards you on this day, Your birthday. Place one hand on your heart if that feels right, And now breathe it all in. With each inhale, Let the love that surrounds you enter. Don't think about whether you deserve it. Don't make it smaller than it is. Just let it come in. Breathing in love. Breathing out whatever has been in the way. Again, Breathing in love. Breathing out. One more deep breath in. . . And exhale fully. Feel your heart respond. It may feel warm, It may feel full. There may be tenderness, There may be tears. Whatever arises, It's welcome. Love is there to move us. That's what it's for. You were born. What an improbable, Remarkable thing, That out of all of these possible configurations of the universe, You arrived. This particular version of a person with your particular mind, Your particular laugh, Your particular wounds and gifts and way of seeing. No one ever before you or after you. Or ever quite be you. Just let that land for a moment. No one before or after you will ever be quite you. And just before we come back, There's one more moment that I invite in as an invitation. From this place of fullness if you're feeling up to it, This place of feeling held and loved just notice, Is there anything that you're able to give? Love wants to move. Love received wants to move. That's its nature. You don't need to do anything with this now. Just feel it. Like the warmth in your chest seeking to move outwards to the people that you will return to, To the animal companions that are waiting for you. You can carry this love. You have always carried love. That is kind of part of why we're born. And then gently allow the visualisation to soften. This vast gathering of people, All those people, Animals, The whole of the living world, Let them settle into the background. Not gone, Never gone, But quiet. You'll still carry their warmth with you. Begin to feel the room around you, The temperature of the air on your skin. Wiggle your fingers, Your toes, Take a deep breath. Just let it go with a sound if you like. I'm going to make a sound. Take a deep breath. You can begin to bring some gentle movement back into your body, Perhaps rolling the shoulders, Bringing your knees to your chest if you're lying down, Just having a stretch in whatever way feels natural. And then when you're ready, You can open your eyes. So I just wanted to say happy birthday. And if you're listening to this and it's not your birthday, That's also amazing. You're just giving yourself something. And I am now going to spend some time with my cat and offer some love I've now received. Thank you so much for listening. Really appreciate it.