I want to honor your choice for coming to meditation today.
Inhale.
Exhale.
When things get challenging,
Settling in can be the last thing we want to do.
Take a breath in.
Now let it go.
Many of us know though that the breath can be a beautiful tether,
Keeping us grounded in the here and now.
So let's inhale and exhale.
Welcome to a hit of hope.
This was written during the fourth week of self-isolation for the coronavirus.
And let's just get real for a minute,
Shall we?
Some of you may have homes filled to the brim with people,
Or as I like to call them,
Hurricanes of temperament.
You might have the loud,
The quiet,
The introvert,
The extrovert,
The slob,
The neat nick,
The rational,
The emotional,
The Cinderella who is happy as a clam in the ashes and singing to the damn birds,
And Oscar,
The let-me-sit-in-my-chair-and-growl-at-the-world grouch.
As I tell my creative writing students,
If you want to create tension,
Put people in a small space and watch the garbage bag filled with vegetable soup explode when it gets dropped on the sidewalk.
Drama,
Drama,
Drama.
Alternatively,
Some of you might be facing this alone.
Maybe you've cried and there have been no arms there to hold you.
Maybe you've thought about texting an ex.
Maybe you have Marie condoed the heck out of your closets.
Maybe you've named the walls.
Why,
Good morning,
Mr.
Flotztwaddle.
How did you sleep last night?
Whether you are with people or alone,
This is hard.
Some of you might be tumbling down into a deeper dark,
A dark that was already so hard to fight off.
Some of you might be afraid for the world,
For your safety,
For your loved ones who might be compromised or who are essential in leaving the house every day to do good.
And the thing is,
What might help me get through this might not be what helps you.
For you,
Going out to the shed and making a beautiful bedside table might be the most calming thing in the world.
For me,
It would be akin to putting my fingers in the garbage disposal.
For me,
Getting on my yoga mat brings me spaciousness and fierceness.
For those of you who are only slightly more flexible than a piece of wood,
It would bring pain and frustration.
When I was in the first dark days of my divorce,
A friend said to me that she had gotten through hers by creating a list of ten things to do when it got really bad.
Her list included everything from doing a handstand to putting on drag makeup.
She would start at number one and keep going down the list until she felt better,
And if she got all the way through,
Then she would go through the list again.
What if we each created our own list?
And if we can't think of ten things,
What about five?
If we share our space,
What if we ask others to do the same?
We could post them on the fridge or the bathroom mirror.
Because honestly,
We need to remember there are more ways than one to be happy,
Even in the midst of this.
Now,
For a stab at my list.
Number one,
See if I can come up with better names for my walls.
Hello,
Cotton-Holler Jim,
Honeysuckle Mordecai.
Number two,
Watch Lauren's Welk on YouTube and dance along.
Wonderful,
Wonderful.
Number three,
Take out a pen and paper.
Close my eyes and draw a face without lifting the pen.
Number four,
Inhale,
Exhale.
Number five,
Write and record another hit of Hope to remind everyone out there,
You have a light inside.
Let it shine.
Namaste.
