Good evening.
My name is Carrie and I'm in the Arizona desert near Saguaro National Park.
It's evening here.
The sky is pink and as the sun sets,
I'll be guiding you through this meditation as a way for you to explore and connect to your own internal spirit of perseverance.
So I want you to begin by finding a relaxed yet alert state.
Eyes open or closed,
Sitting or standing or even reclining.
Connecting to your breath.
Perhaps slowing it just a little as you feel yourself relaxing into any tension that you might have in your body.
You can return to your breath at any time and if your mind wanders,
Remember the point of a meditation is to just call it back with kindness and compassion.
Just practice for our life off the cushion.
And as you continue to focus on your breathing,
I will bring you into the desert.
And as I do,
Try to open your senses to this experience.
We'll begin looking around the Saguaro desert.
Here's an enormous round barrel cactus with a cluster of yellow flowers atop like hair on its head.
Here and there,
They're woolly ball cacti and small common hedgehog cacti too.
There are prickly pear cacti growing in clumps.
Each prickly pear like a round ear.
But most magnificent around me are teddy bear chola or jumping chola.
These cacti right now as the sun sets,
They're showing their golden spines in the evening light like halos of light.
It's like they're lit up from within.
Then above them,
Of course,
Are the Saguaro,
The most defining cactus of the Sonora desert.
These tree like cacti,
They stand with arms bent upwards stretching toward the pinkening sky,
Punctuating the sky.
Imagine walking around observing.
There's some creosote bushes.
They're bright green.
Listen to the crickets,
Many crickets as the evening time progresses.
There are also occasional calls of the cactus wren standing right on top of the Saguaro cactus closest to me is a Harris's hawk watching the landscape.
There's a gilded flicker and even a hummingbird.
Even in the evening to the coyote call to one another,
We may hear them.
The sky is deepening into violet and blue.
And we're feeling it cool as the sun dips beyond the hills just below the horizon.
There's a slight breeze.
It smells aromatic.
Some,
Not many,
But some of the Saguaro cactus,
The cacti have little yellow flowers atop their heads.
These grow just for 24 hours and they're growing right now.
They smell so beautiful in this evening breeze.
You can feel it cooling as the sun dips.
There's also a plane you might hear overhead.
Machinery and nature together reminding us that we're never alone and never as far from the world as we think we are.
So here in the desert,
These cacti,
They're symbols of endurance,
Everlasting spirit and perseverance.
Imagine yourself here in this place,
This landscape that feels immortal,
It feels timeless.
And there's a part of you that's just as connected to this timelessness as I am.
Listen inside yourself for that space that only the desert can provide.
Imagine yourself standing here as the light turns.
Here are strips of pink and blue.
Returning to your breath,
Finding that expanse in your heart,
Inside your body.
Looking around,
You notice so many of these cacti.
They have spines,
Protections from the harsh environment of the desert.
Yet inside,
There's so much hidden from the eye that is soft and warm and nourishing.
One of the soror near me has a hole at the top and some of the birds,
The smallest birds,
Like the gilded flicker,
They go into the hole.
They make their homes.
They rest from prey.
They persevere.
Imagine yourself sitting and considering,
How do you persevere?
What is your inner hidden strength?
How can you take refuge?
Just like that gilded flicker did,
How can you take refuge inside your own deep nourishing self?
No matter how hot or how cold the desert,
These cacti protect themselves.
They protect the animals.
From the conditions.
They live,
They thrive.
The soror are over a hundred years old,
All around me.
Some of them younger,
But many of them older,
Ancient.
The sun's dipping further down,
It's cooling even more.
Imagine now,
If you will,
That deep inside you,
There is the same peace that the desert brings every evening.
Where do you find your peace?
That place,
That soft place,
Like the yellow flowers atop the barrel cactus,
Shines so bright so that even on the most difficult day,
This place you can return to.
The light is dimming around me now.
Some of the green creosote is looking darker.
The birds have found their places to rest inside the soror for the night,
So the owls will come out.
Life gets soft,
Gets quiet in the evening.
Where do you find your soft,
Quiet place inside your soul,
Inside your being?
Maybe it rests in the heart cavity,
Or in your mind.
Find yourself stretching into that softness now,
Curling up like the birds are inside the soror cactus,
Safe and warm for the night.
Imagine yourself as connected to this land as all the cacti around me.
Imagine this cacti,
This desert,
As connected to you as the area that you are in right now.
Find that animal part of you that connects to the earth,
That earth spirit that's been with you since the day you were born.
This is your strength and your perseverance.
It's as wondrous as this desert landscape,
And it's yours and yours alone.
You belong here,
And this desert belongs inside you.
So I want you to imagine your most ancient and wise self,
The wisest part of you,
Wherever that is,
Like the ancient soror.
What would it say to you right now?
What truth to help you persevere in the toughest times does this ancient self say to you?
How can you remember these words,
This feeling,
This peace of the desert?
Where do you keep it inside you?
And I want you to go back out now from inside yourself.
Open yourself back in the desert.
The sun is nearly set.
You can hear a few more birds,
A few more crickets.
The teddy bear chola,
The light has dimmed behind it.
It now looks almost dark.
The soror stand stark against the darkening light.
And you are here.
You'll always be here in this everlasting place.
But it's time for you to go and that you know.
So taking a few more deep breaths,
Return to the feeling in your toes and your fingers.
You can put your palms or your hands over your eyes.
And when you're ready,
Open them.
And when you're ready,
Move into wherever you are in your day.
But as you move into the day or the evening or the night,
I hope you keep this beautiful desert evening with you.
Thank you.
