Scented Soul presents a gift on Earth Day,
Guided meditation,
Everything is connected with Kamala Man.
When tuning into this gift,
I feel the words of Thich Nhat Hanh are relevant and this is that change is possible if there is a recognition that people and planet are ultimately one and the same.
To carry Mother Earth within you,
She is not outside of you.
Mother Earth is not just your environment.
With that in mind,
This meditation explores our connection to Mother Earth by contemplating a simple apple.
The sitting works best on having an actual apple in your hands.
So allow yourself to sit or lay down comfortably on a chair or the floor so that you feel supported.
You may choose to be inside or maybe you feel drawn to being outside in nature.
Have your eyes open and gazing at the apple,
Allow your sense of being to settle into the easefulness of the breath.
Feel the breath's natural rise and fall.
You might notice this lift and fall at the nose or the mouth or anywhere in the body that your awareness is drawn to.
As you rest into simple noticing of the lift and fall of the breath,
Notice the feel of the apple in your hands.
Allow your hands to feel the weight of the apple.
Notice how your fingers gently wrap around the contours of its flesh.
Feel its temperature.
Notice or imagine that you can feel the rise and fall of your breath in the palms of your hands as though your breath is touching,
Meeting the skin of the apple.
Allow yourself to gently hold the apple in one hand so that you can see it.
Move the apple along the fingers of that hand,
Noticing the colours and how light catches different parts of the apple.
Using the fingers of your free hand,
Notice the texture of the apple skin,
The indentations as you run your fingers slowly along its surface.
Gently draw the apple towards your nose and breathe in its aroma as though taking the smell deeply into the back of your head.
Allow the skin of the apple to touch the skin of your lips.
Allow the apple to slowly roll past your lips to one of your cheeks,
Gently moving it to the chin.
Slowly back past the lips up to your nose,
Along the bridge of the nose and towards your forehead.
Draw the touch of the apple with your face and hands just like a child would as though given an apple for the first time.
Now gently bring the apple so that it rests in both of your hands.
Imagine that the rise and fall of your breath sits at the core of the apple in your hands.
The apple,
Just like you,
Has a story of how it came to be here.
It started out as a flower,
As blossom.
That blossom was visited by honey bees that pollinated it so that it could grow into an apple.
As the blossom died away,
The remaining part began to form into the core of the apple that you now hold.
The apple was fed by sunlight all summer long through the leaves of the tree from where it came.
The job of these leaves was to make sweetness from sunlight,
Breathing to form the apple in your hand.
Supporting this apple was also moisture drawn up through the roots of the tree.
The moisture was received as rain from the skies gathered from water of the earth with the help of the sun.
A never ending cycle of giving and receiving.
As the moisture fed the tree,
The breathing leaves exhaled oxygen,
Helping us humans to breathe.
The apple in front of you holds the rain,
The sun,
The earth,
The in and out movement of the breath.
Imagine the rise and fall of the breath in the apple you hold.
This fruit has travelled through many hands so that you can now hold it in yours.
The hands of people with names and families,
Hopes and dreams,
Their own personal stories yet holding the common human themes of joy,
Sorrow,
Laughter,
Sadness,
Of love,
No different at their core to your stories.
The apple in front of you is part of an interconnected web of earth,
Water,
Air,
Sunshine and people to be now sitting in your hand.
It is a symbol,
A reminder that you are part of the earth,
Not something that is separate to it.
Notice your breath,
Notice the apple and recognise your connection to the earth.
You are one and the same.
May all beings be happy.
May all beings be at peace.
May all beings be free.
