Close your eyes and feel your body resting against the back of your chair,
Your feet firmly on the ground,
The hands gently resting in your lap.
Take a few deep grounding breaths,
Feel the air fill your lungs,
And gently exhale.
Take another breath and feel the fresh oxygen bringing life to every cell in your body.
As you exhale,
Let go of everything you do not need to hold on to anymore.
Take a couple more deep grounding breaths.
Settle into your body.
You have been walking a long way through many different terrains.
Sometimes you have wondered,
Is there a shortcut?
Do I have to go all this way?
But by now,
You have embraced the full knowledge that the path you are on is the one you are meant to be on.
You are not in a rush to get anywhere anymore.
You start to slow down.
Now you take off your shoes and you feel your feet on the earth.
You take each step with full attention to how the warm earth feels underfoot.
You savour each footstep knowing that it is taking you where you need to go.
And as you walk,
You feel how you are held from beneath by the earth and from above by the sky overhead.
You imbibe the setting around you,
The centre of trees,
The sounds of the wildlife hidden in the brush,
The wind in your hair,
The sun on your skin and even the water that moves deep beneath the ground in a silent water table.
Clouds gather above and block out the sun but then move on.
You feel the pulse of the trees around you as they take in carbon dioxide and by a generous alchemy of their unseen metabolism release oxygen back into the air for you to breathe.
You see a leaf fall from a tree and you bend to pick it up.
You hold it in your hand and as you examine it,
You see its veins radiating from a central spine to the outer edges of the leaf and suddenly you sense it,
The invisible order that beats the inner music of the leaf,
The tree from which it fell,
The earth from which the tree grew,
The sky above it and you.
You bow your head in humility and give thanks for being part of such a sacred pattern,
Knowing that the perfection is in the detail,
In the dust beneath your feet and the rain that falls from the sky.
You feel how every leaf and every creature in this forest is performing its part in the hidden architecture of your journey.
The sun gives you daylight to carry on with the journey and the night gives you sanctuary to rest.
Take a moment now to feel the ebb and flow of life,
To experience the beauty,
Richness and order of all things and how you too are part of this.
And you feel it in your heart,
How you are related to it all and you can learn from it all and that no detail is in vain,
No musical note out of order.
You see Divine Presence in each detail and begin to understand that nothing is here by accident,
Nothing you do is a mistake.
You are learning that everything is unfolding around you in perfect harmony.
You sink to your knees and place your forehead on the ground in a gesture of sublime humility.
You give thanks for the many teachers your path has placed in front of you and the chance you have to play in this chorus of creation.
Thank you.
