In this practice I'd invite you to find a position that's comfortable.
Find that often this one is best done lying down in a posture that really maximizes the ability of the body to make contact with the earth.
As you settle into the posture,
You might just allow the body to be received and held by the earth beneath it.
Allow the head to be held and received,
The shoulders to be held and received,
The arms and hands to be held and received,
The back and the seat and the legs and the feet,
The whole body held and supported.
Really just giving yourself to that stable energy of the earth beneath you.
You might gather the awareness of the breath for a moment.
Sense the gentle expansion and contraction of the body,
The feeling of the air passing in and out of the nose.
And I'd invite you to imagine now as you lie here,
That you're in an open field somewhere,
Lying down in the soil,
The sky and sun above you,
The trees off in the distance,
Grasses all around you,
The wind rushing across the top of your body from time to time.
Just sense that open aliveness of a field.
And you might sense as the wind blows across you,
It deposits tiny seeds across your body,
Carried from other plants and trees.
Allow these seeds to settle,
Make a home for themselves here in your being.
You might sense that with the in-breath now,
You can breathe into the fertile soil of your body,
The sun,
The heat and warmth from the sun,
The moisture in the air.
And with the exhale,
You can give life to these tiny seeds planted along your body.
Inhaling light and energy and exhaling life.
You might sense that these little seeds begin to sprout,
Sending tiny roots into your being,
Tiny shoots up into the air.
And very gently your body continues to tend to them.
Maybe a light rain or drizzle comes across.
You soak it into your being on the inhale,
You send it into these tiny little roots on the exhale.
As you inhale sun and rain and exhale life,
These little shoots grow,
They form stems and stalks and send little roots deeper into your being.
Inhaling sun,
Inhaling the rain,
Exhaling life.
And the wind might blow through these little stalks as they grow,
Reminding this body,
These plants that they're all alive,
Dancing in this world.
As you breathe in sun and rain and breathe out life,
These little plants begin to bloom and blossom.
Flowers open,
Leaves come out,
And the roots stretch deep down all the way through you into the earth.
So that your body and the soil begin to merge.
You are of the earth.
Your body sustains life.
And you feel the wind as it moves through these blossoming,
Flowering plants.
As they reach down into your body,
You feel them shift in the earth,
Rooting themselves,
Nourishing themselves.
And you breathe in the sun and the rain,
And you breathe out life.
As they grow,
Some begin to get old,
Blossoms fade and wilt,
Stalks get brittle,
And some of the plants die,
New ones take root.
And you breathe in and breathe out and watch these plants begin to cycle through life.
The flowers come and go,
The grasses seed and disperse and come up again.
Maybe a little tree will begin its long journey to the sky.
Notice now what comes to greet you.
Little rabbits start nibbling at the shoots,
Seeking warmth in the earth of your body.
Bees dart and die through the forest that grows from you,
Amongst the flowers and the grasses.
Butterflies land and circle each other and flitter off.
Little ants steadily march,
Carrying nutrients and soil to and fro,
Making homes,
Doing work.
Birds might swoop in,
Picking up a seed or an insect,
Resting a moment,
And flying off.
And then you're breathing in light,
Breathing in warmth and heat and energy,
And breathing out life.
Breathing in rain,
And breathing out life.
And the nutrients from the plants and animals that have died,
Breathing out life.
This being,
This body,
The giver of life.
Let's rest here.
Breathing in,
Breathing out of the earth and all beings.
Ding!
