Close your eyes.
Take a slow,
Deep breath in through your nose,
Then out through your mouth.
Continue these relaxing breaths throughout this meditation.
Now picture yourself lying on the banks of an autumn-lit pond,
Alone and cocooned in your favorite blanket,
The sun's warmth caressing your face.
Reflections of flame-colored leaves dance across the pond as a gentle breeze skirts past you.
The playful breeze carries the comforting aromas of moist earth,
Pine,
And cedar.
In the distance,
Two geese fly overhead with dual honks that break the autumn silence,
Alerting all creatures below to clear the pond for landing.
As the honks subside,
The geese splash gracefully onto the water and glide.
For a moment,
You feel as if you are gliding with them,
Weightless and boundareless on water as smooth as glass.
Then the silence returns,
And you remember your sweet solitude.
The pitter-patter of falling acorns soon breaks this veil of silence,
And an occasional pine cone gently falls from its host into a cushion of needles below.
In the tree directly above you,
A furry gray squirrel begins to chatter softly,
As if beckoning back the fallen acorns.
Then he barks and leaps to the nearest branch.
You savor this experience of gentle beauty that is nestled all around you.
Even as a train whistles in the distance,
As it noisily clackety-clacks down the tracks,
And you are reminded that civilization is nearby,
You pull back,
Knowing you are oscillated from the busyness of life and time is momentarily slowed down.
It is here in the midst of this breathtaking communion with nature that you learn to embrace your aloneness.
You recognize that aloneness doesn't have to equate with loneliness,
And you begin to understand that in grand surroundings such as these,
You can accept aloneness as a sacred part of life.
For these are the blessed moments that allow you to commune with nature and creation,
And entice your heart to open up.
It is here in this place of aloneness that you feel free to become enlightened and transformed,
As your soul becomes infused with the wisdom and knowledge that you are not truly alone.
You are never alone.
You are united with everything living,
And are always connected to the universe.
Breathe.
Inhale the universe.
Embrace the un-loneliness of being alone,
The separateness but complete unity you feel,
The individuality but utter wholeness,
Knowing that you are but a speck in this massive universe,
But you are a magnificent speck that is oh so necessary for making this universe complete.
Oh so necessary.
Let these words forever echo in your mind.
