Meditating is a chance to harbor ourselves,
To anchor ourselves in this breath in and in this breath out.
Open your forehead,
Your jaw,
Your tongue.
Inhale,
Exhale.
Welcome to a hit of hope.
We've all probably heard the phrase,
Change is inevitable.
Meaning change is that which cannot be avoided.
And embedded in that is a sense of dread.
Meaning we see change as something to meet with a heavy heart.
Something to resist,
Fight against,
Or submit to.
As in,
Fine,
Here's some damn change again.
May as well give up and let it happen.
Inhale,
Exhale.
If we see change as inevitable and something to dread,
Is it any surprise many of us do everything in our power to avoid change?
Who wants to have something like the ocean at the root of their lives?
Something ever shifting and uncontrollable?
Something that might sometimes be calm,
But more often is something big and wild and even something that can tear everything we know and love apart?
If that's the case,
Why wouldn't we want to avoid change?
We all know the havoc it can wreak.
Inhale,
Exhale.
Change is inevitable is one perspective on change.
Here's another.
What if we say change is life?
Change is the condition of being a living thing.
What does that mean?
Inhale,
Exhale.
You just took a breath in and let it go.
Inhale,
Exhale.
You just did it again.
And if you didn't,
If you didn't change that past breath for this now breath,
Very soon you would no longer be a living thing.
Inhale,
Exhale.
In other words,
The very rhythm of your being,
Your breath is like that ocean coming in and going out.
It is ever changing.
And because of that,
Because of that constant change at the very core of your being,
It means you are alive.
External change,
Especially the kind of change we didn't ask for can be terrifying,
Just like an ocean storm.
And there are times when change happens and the thing we need to do is hunker down and do whatever it takes to survive.
I've been there.
When I didn't know if I could take one more breath without being torn apart inside.
Maybe you have to.
Inhale,
Exhale.
We just took a breath together and here we are.
Damn it,
Here we are,
Alive and breathing,
Changing every second of every day.
Change is life.
Change is how you know you are alive.
Change is the chance to choose,
The chance to let go of everything you are not.
A shedding,
A releasing,
An unraveling,
So that what is left is the very core of who you are.
And in your core,
You are fierce and messy and real and oh so very alive.
Inhale,
Exhale.
You are alive.
Let go of everything you are not.
And live light.
