Hello,
Welcome.
My name is Lew Redman.
Thank you for practicing with me.
Today's meditation is going to be about reconnecting with our purpose.
And as someone who has been on the path of exploring and living my purpose over the past 11 years,
I find it both scary and relieving to know that even when we think we found it,
Sometimes the path leads us in another direction or we might have the sense that even after all this time we may lose it,
We may get lost,
We may live in a lot of uncertainty and not be quite sure where to put our attention.
I take a lot of solace in the fact that losing the way is actually part of the way.
And there are two teachers that I admire that have spoken to this truth.
One is the poet David White.
In an interview,
David White was asked,
How do you know that you are on your path?
And his response was,
Because it disappears.
The fact that we don't quite know where we're going means that we are actually leading our lives.
We are entering new terrain,
New experiences,
And we're letting something emerge rather than creating a concrete plan.
The great mythologist Joseph Campbell would say that you enter the forest at the darkest point where there is no path.
If there is a path,
It's not your path.
It's someone else's.
You have to follow your own path.
And so on this journey,
We're continually exploring new dark forests.
We're going into the unknown and it's in that unknown that new growth,
New richness,
New experience of who we are can show up.
And there's a great faith,
There's a great trust that is needed to go on this path.
And this meditation is going to help us explore that.
And maybe if you are feeling uncertain,
Reconnect you with that path and that remembrance of who you are and what you came here for.
And to begin our meditation,
I'm actually going to share a prayer from the Catholic monk Thomas Merton.
This is known as a prayer for when we're feeling uncertain.
And so you're welcome to slow down and close your eyes as I repeat this prayer.
Maybe feel it or say it.
And I will say that the language for some may not resonate.
He was a Catholic monk and I really want to encourage you,
Whether you resonate with the language or not,
To stay with the message,
To stay with the prayer to whomever you pray to.
That this is a really great anchoring to keep us steady within the unknown that we might be facing.
And so go ahead and close your eyes.
Come into your body.
Maybe just take a breath to slow down.
And offering the Thomas Merton prayer as a way to anchor to your path in all its unknown and uncertainty.
My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself.
And the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope I never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this,
You will lead me by the right road,
Though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore,
Will I trust you always,
Though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death,
I will not fear.
For you are ever with me.
And you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
And so continue feeling into your body,
Grounding into chair beneath you,
The ground beneath you.
And as you slow down,
You feel yourself in the unknown of your path.
Whatever that means for you right now.
Maybe you have no idea where you're going.
Maybe you feel like you're in the shadow of death.
Or maybe you're clear and connected,
But welcoming the unknown,
Grateful for the connection,
Grateful for the clarity,
Knowing that the unknown is just around the corner.
So embracing that here.
And remember,
God will never leave you to face your perils alone.
Really let that sink in.
What do you notice?
And then bringing up an image,
Seeing yourself on the precipice of entering a dark forest where there is no path.
So just notice how deep in there do you feel?
The sense where in the forest you are.
And remember,
The deeper it goes,
Sometimes the more unknown it can get.
So if you can breathe and embrace and sense what's here right now on your path,
What are you being asked to face?
And then allow yourself to walk,
Lazing this path as you do.
And notice a tree that catches your attention.
And this tree represents your childhood.
And maybe a time that comes to mind before any hurts or woundings,
If that's possible for you.
Maybe when there was more innocence,
More of your own natural cliquivity,
Less protective mechanisms.
Now,
However it comes to mind,
Maybe you open the door of a tree and see this child there.
Maybe you just go to an image of your childhood self.
Maybe she or he is in the forest with you.
In this sense,
What is it that came naturally to you as a child?
Not necessarily activities,
But ways of being.
Who are you?
How are you at your most natural state?
I'm just taking in what you feel,
What you sense,
What you see,
What it's reminding you of.
And then looking at this child,
Being curious,
Was there a negative aspect of your personality that was actually a gift?
Maybe you thought it wasn't at the time,
Maybe you were naive or gullible.
Maybe you were too sensitive or too assertive.
What at the time maybe you didn't like about yourself or was told was too much.
But if you slow down,
You might see it as a gift.
That might be there,
That might not be there.
And then thanking this child for their life,
For their remembrance,
Their teaching,
What they showed you today or didn't show you.
Honoring them and continue walking in the forest until you see another tree that catches your eye.
And this tree represents the moment you started your journey.
Whatever that means for you.
It could be a transformative journey,
It could be your business journey.
Maybe it was your cancer journey.
Maybe you've always been on your journey as I think to some extent we always have been.
But as you think back to that moment,
What was it that was so enlivening?
Or alluring or connecting?
When you were a beginner,
When you had a child's mind with it all,
What was it that really got you?
It's a classic Howard Thurman quote,
Don't ask what the world needs,
Ask what makes you come alive.
Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
So I'm willing to bet that there is some aliveness happening.
And aliveness could be beauty but aliveness could also be deep grief and sadness.
Both are experience of full aliveness.
And so just tuning in to that aliveness right here if it's accessible.
I really believe that is our ultimate purpose is to be fully alive.
So think of some words and qualities,
If you think back to your journey or just that feel true right now for you.
Maybe it's possibility,
Compassion,
Reverence,
Peace.
There's likely something here that can inform your purpose or re-inform your purpose.
Hope you remember it.
Breathing into those words,
Those qualities.
And then honoring this tree,
Really honoring your journey.
You're still here,
You're still walking.
And continuing on,
We're just going to come to one last tree that catches your eye.
And this tree is actually the tree of life.
However,
You see the tree of life.
It's probably weird to share in a meditation but since I just had a baby,
I got to see the placenta and I never knew on the back of a placenta was the tree of life.
The way that the web of veins spreads.
It was wild.
That's definitely the first and last time I'm saying placenta in a meditation.
But just the we came into this world with life.
And that this tree that you're seeing in your visualization is the miracle that you came here with some way of being from another far off world.
And the tree of life in some ways is what nourished you in your mother's womb for you to be here.
And it's still here guiding you.
And so just reminding yourself as you look at this tree of life,
That energy that brought you here.
That energy that cared for you from the moment you were conceived that made you.
And maybe it knows what it's doing.
As you look at this tree,
Breathing in and taking that reminder that life knows what it's doing.
And then maybe there's a purpose statement that comes here.
This is something maybe you've talked about or explored before.
But from here after doing this,
He would just say like my purpose is to be.
What words come?
And not do but be.
Be a source of inspiration.
Be a ray of compassion,
A weaver of community.
Let's see what shows up here.
And then honoring this tree,
Honoring the whole forest for its teachings today.
Letting it go,
Coming back into just being here now.
Let's take one last full breath together.
Letting it go.
And thank you so much for practicing with me,
For being in the unknown of your path.
If you connected with this,
I'd love to hear a purpose statement that maybe came through or something that it reminded you for your journey.
And if you connected with that prayer,
And you'd like to just use that prayer as its own practice or experience,
I have the prayer for you.
Recorded on its own.
So you can go ahead and check that out under.
It's either the Thomas Merton prayer or a prayer for uncertainty on my page.
So thanks so much for being here.
And I look forward to practicing with you again soon.
