Bold Love Pledge: A Moving Meditation

This movement meditation (for walking or rolling in a wheelchair) invites deep breathing and unhurried movement alongside a series of pledges (or intentions) meant to open, deepen, and engage one's heart and life journey while centering what I describe as, Bold Love. Pledge invitations throughout the meditation include some of the following themes: antiracism, consumerism, creativity, truth-telling, plants, healing, nature, joy, risk, wonder, and more.

Transcript

Peace and courage and greetings and love wherever this meets you. I invite you if you are not already outside in a place where you can be moving at an unhurried pace. I invite you to pause this and consider that invitation. This can also be hosted inside, Wherever you are, However you are. And you can imagine yourself moving if moving, Whether by foot or on a wheelchair, Is not an option for you in this moment or in this season. I am recording this from a public park and so you will hear the sounds of geese and people moving around and airplanes and different things in the background. And so with that, I invite you to welcome the sounds of what is around you as they are, As you are. I'm starting this meditation underneath a very mature juniper tree and the branches are twisting and reaching, Bending. There are many signs of broken branches with soft, Rolling, Almost wave-like wounds as they heal. So I invite you to start this meditation underneath or near a tree in all of its story. So let's begin with a couple really deep breaths honoring our bodies. All of our truths are aches. Breathing all the way in and slowly out. Breathing deeply in, Expanding our minds and our hearts, Moving cells and neurons to the edges of our fingers and toes. Breathing deeply in and slowly out. If the deep breathing is bringing you good nourishment, I invite you to pause and continue a handful of deep breaths just to give yourself time to rest into that deep breathing. So if it is comfortable to do so, Whether by foot or on a wheelchair, I invite you to slowly begin moving wherever this meets you, Wherever you are. And as you move, The nature of this moving invitation, Meditation is to invite these various pledges, These various intentions, These invitations to move with you as your arms swing, As your hips sway, As the wind brushes up against your skin, As your bones and neurons and cells communicate with your muscles and your joints and your tendons, As your brain reaches down into your heart and your heart throughout your whole body. So we are honoring as we move our dynamic bodies and stories. And so with the invitation of this meditation, We move with the theme of bold love, Love with edges, Love that liberates, Love that opens, Love that deepens, Love that moves us further into ourselves, Thus further and further into the truths of others, Perhaps further and further into the truths of the trees and the sky and the streams. I invite you if any of these pledges or invitations especially speak to you as you are moving, If one goes deeply in to your unique journey, I invite you to pause the meditation and just walk with it, Roll with it, Be with it for several steps, For several breaths. You can always replay the meditation several times to massage these invitations however they meet you and move through you. So I will begin reading them as you move, As we move. I pledge for bold love, Inviting bold love in me and in you that I pledge to live into more bold and creative anti-racism work and healing, Honoring the lived experience of those who are different than me. That anti-racism asks us to not separate each other from one another and from the planet, To invite and honor and see and face and repair systems that have made race a dividing and devastating reality for so many. And so we move and pledge to live into more bold and creative anti-racism work and healing. We move and we pledge to absorb even more soulful wisdom from the trees and the stones and the skies and the streams. We pledge and we move to absorb even more soulful wisdom from the trees and the stones and the skies and the streams. We pledge and we move to move our beloved bodies as much as we are able, As much as we are able to move, To move, To move, To move into the days ahead, To remind ourselves of movement and the wisdom in movement. We pledge, I pledge to forgive ourselves for ongoing imperfection, Mistakes and projections from pain. That I forgive myself for ongoing imperfection, Mistakes and projections from pain. We move and we invite. We pledge, I pledge to cultivate more creative collaboration with loved ones, With others, With natural elements, With creatures, With the world around me, The world around us. We move and we pledge to express more of our unique and colorful identities, Truths and experiences with color, With risk, With courage, With excitement, With joy. To express, We pledge and we move to express our truths and our experiences. We pledge and we move to relish and cherish all the simple moments and miracles, To relish and cherish all the simple movements and moments and miracles, The magic of a moment, The miracle of moments. We pledge and we move to honor our hurt and to befriend our anger, To learn from it, To grow with it, To tend to it, To nurture it. We pledge and we move, I pledge and I move to honor my hurt and to befriend my anger. All the edges with grace and self-compassion to honor my hurt and to befriend my anger. We pledge and we move to eat less meat and to source the wisdom of plants, To be more mindful of the meat that we eat, To eat less meat, Perhaps to not eat meat and source the wisdom of plants as food, As teachers, As nutrients, As nourishment, As medicine, As friends. We move and we pledge to risk more openness, More honesty, More truth telling, More personal vulnerability. I move and I pledge to risk more openness, More honesty, More truth telling and personal vulnerability to bridge and wire my heart to yours, Your heart to mine, Our hearts to others to risk for more openness, Honesty, Truth telling and personal vulnerability. I invite you to pause if it's easy and to just take a really deep breath, Allowing these words and invitations and pledges to land where they land and to move where they move. A deep breath all the way in, A slow and deep breath all the way out. Breathe deeply again all the way in, Slowly out. Gratitude for breath, Gratitude for our in breath all the way in, Gratitude for our out breath slowly out. We invite the wisdom and the sound of geese and birds and sky and flight and all of creation that feels healthy and good. Continue moving at your own pace and I will continue sharing and inviting a handful of additional pledges and invitations. And so we pledge and we move to pause activity, To breathe deeply. And so I pause activity to breathe deeply and bridge the universe inside of me with the wonder of the galaxy and all of created life. So we pledge and we move to pause activity, To breathe deeply and bridge the universe inside of us with the wonder of the galaxy and all created life. We pledge and we move to engage and to face more deconstruction and repair of so many colonized ideas and practices and behaviors living in us and around us. So we pledge and we move with humility and curiosity and courage and bold love to go into deconstruction, To go in to the challenges and into the canyons and the dismantling of and the repair of the colonized ideas, Practices and behaviors living in me and in you and in all of us that we open and love, That we seek and go deeper. That we pledge and we move to pursue more joy, Play, Pleasure and laughter. That I pursue more joy, More play, More pleasure and laughter for you, For me, For you and for me. That we pledge and we move to keep creating, Keep wondering, Keep asking, Keep seeking, Keep curiosity and openness close. That I pledge and I move to keep creating and keep seeking and keep curiosity and wonder close. That we pledge and we move to seek love and seek mystery always. That I pledge and I move to seek love and seek mystery always in all my breaths and doings and all my trying and all my falling and getting up. That I pledge to seek love and seek mystery always. And our final pledge in this invitation, That we pledge and we move to be of an open, Just and nurturing way in all that we do and in all that we are. That we pledge and we move to be of an open, Just and nurturing way in all that we are and in all that we do and all that we are and all that we do. That I pledge and I move to be of an open, Just and nurturing way in all that I do and in all that I am. So I invite you, If it's easy, Maybe pause or just be mindful of your breathing and your steps that we tend to our breathing to bring us home, To bring us into the pureness of life, Of existence. Breathing these things all the way in wherever they land, However they move, Breathing them in deeply honoring who we are and what we are capable of all the way in. Slowly out all the way in. Slowly out. I invite you to continue moving with these invitations to replay them. I invite you just to be in your body and to move and to breathe and to be with all the wisdom of the natural world around you and in you. Peace and courage and bold love.

Reviews

Awesome! Very important pledges indeed. I sort of made it a faster walk than usual to beat the rain on this cold day in Madison. Looking forward to listening again when I can take it slower. Blessed be!