Hi,
My name is Sarah Blondin and welcome to today's daily insight.
Today's practice is really about expressing and naming what you most love.
It will begin with a short talk and end with a guided meditation and it can be really useful for reminding you of what matters most to you in this life.
I wish you a restorative practice.
In hope to find solace and healing for all that was ailing her,
A woman seeks help from a wise elder.
She sits on her knees in front of the wise man and spills before him her angst and stories of woe.
She speaks of how afraid she is of the world warming,
Of her children's unruly behaviors.
She speaks of her fear of the unknown and what the opaque future may hold.
She tells him of the anger that erupts sometimes seemingly out of nowhere,
How her body aches and how at times her heart feels like it is a stranger to her.
He listens to her stories and great pains with his eyes deeply fastened on hers.
There's a long pause as the woman waits for the wise elder's response and finally he speaks.
Ah yes,
He says,
But tell me beloved,
What do you love?
We speak most often of our dread,
Our worry,
Our criticism and our judgments.
We are fed fear through the media and then we open our mouths only to regurgitate that same fear.
We are caught circling,
Passing on and handing the baton of our turmoil.
I've noticed recently how little we are speaking of what is joyous to us and instead recycling the herd of the world simply because we have forgotten to feed ourselves with love.
We have forgotten how to sit in the raw and present moment to wake the heart inside of us.
To really remember that though life is full of that which is hard and heartbreaking,
We are each held together by a love that knows no bounds.
We are here to grow and know love,
So why do we speak more often of what hurts than of what heals and sustains us through this hurt?
I must ask you in this moment to harvest with me,
To cultivate,
To encourage your being,
To step aside this fraught noise of the world and speak now of what you most love.
Today as we open inwardly we are going to open each place of love that we carry inside ourselves.
We are going to unwrap the gifts of our life,
For we must learn to train ourselves to speak less about what is wrong and more of what is right,
Of what is good within and around us.
It is in this way we create a storehouse inside of our being that radiates the truth of this life,
The real truth that this life can at times be frightening but is mostly glorious and thread together by that which we love.
For small creatures such as we,
The vastness is only bearable through love,
Carl Sagan.
So I'd like you to close your eyes now and let your breath become your focus and allow it to slowly lift from you your day and your doing,
Breathing slowly in and breathing slowly out.
And just as the sun encourages the flower to open,
Let the life force that is your breath open you to the simple and naked moment you are in right now.
Look for the quiet between your thoughts,
For the peace at the borders and let yourself gently slink into that peace.
Then gently breathing in and breathing out.
Watching your shells of protection drop,
Feeling any parts of your body that may be bracing release,
Your jaw unclench,
Your heart unlock,
Your skin soften and loosen and really let yourself be held by the essence of you.
Slow down dear one,
Let this moment catch and hold you.
I'm really bringing your attention into your heart space as I speak these next words.
I love the morning,
The minutes before the day opens when the sky is the shade of bruised blue,
When the sun is but a halo creeping just above the horizon.
I love watching the spilling over of the light when the earth turns just so to reveal the warmth of the new day.
I love the smell of bark warmed by the late summer sun,
Of the sap on the bud of a new sprout of a cottonwood tree,
The just born skin of a new leaf,
The veins that spread over the face of each flower petal,
The sound of my children down the hall brushing their teeth,
The whispers under their breath to themselves,
The play they are always engaged with,
The dance of a new being learning to move in the world.
I love the feeling of a warm palm brushing across my forehead,
A strong embrace,
The kind that holds longer than what you thought you needed,
One that says open more,
Drop more.
I am here to catch you in all the pieces that fall.
I love the silence thread between movements,
Between sentences said,
Between people and their worries and labored thoughts.
I love when I love you is said,
Not just in passing but caught pupil to pupil,
Iris to iris,
Said and heard in the bone and belly,
More potent than any medicine or brew when it feeds the body with light.
I love when you can feel someone reaching out to you with kindness,
Pulling you to a safe shore,
Of listening to someone's story and seeing the light come back into a once hardened heart.
I love the sounds of birds speaking to one another,
The giant crunch of a leaf being chewed by an almost invisible field mouse,
The soft wind playing a song of grace through the leaves of the aspen.
I love the taste of hot coffee,
One small bit of cream and one small bit of sugar.
I love white lilies,
Purple tulips still tight in their bud.
I love cold rivers with sandy bottoms.
I love the prairie sky and its infinite horizon.
I love when streams look like starlight.
I love the way light dances across the walls in the late afternoon.
I love the shadow cast by wild grasses when light turns gold in the in-between hours of dawn and dusk.
I love the feeling of warm water and soap running over a porcelain dish.
I love clay between my fingers,
Holding the tiny cotton t-shirts of my boys.
I love the heaving chest of my dog fast asleep,
The peace and equanimity that rises off the breath of animals.
I love when some ancient belonging wakes inside of me and I can hear nothing but my acceptance ringing in the air around me when I feel I belong just for being.
I love the silence thread between moments and the fortitude and resilience that sometimes pours over my shoulders as if I am being bestowed benevolence and kindness I have done nothing to deserve.
I love waking from the trance of my mind by the loud hum of a plump bumblebee.
I love the cry of a child asking to be held,
The magic reflected in the eye of a life that feels seen.
I love the magic alive in each moment if we reach for it.
I love to love and be loved.
The most important thing of all is that somewhere inside of me is this gift,
This ever-evolving,
Ever-opening capacity to love.
I am going to give you a few minutes now to say aloud to the room you are in,
To the space that is cradling you now,
To your own being.
Tell me what,
Dear one,
Do you love?
Tell me of all the things you hold inside of you.
Bring you small or big joy.
Harvest your light,
Dear one.
I am going to give you a few minutes now to say aloud to the room you are in,
To the space that is cradling you now,
To your own being.
Tell me what,
Dear one,
Do you love?
Tell me of all the things you hold inside of you.
Bring you small or big joy.
Now tell me what do you feel?
Is there warmth anywhere in your body?
A sort of flood of energy anywhere?
Or maybe you can feel a sort of relief or belonging?
A sense of home maybe?
Notice how your body feels and responds to your recounting of love.
Feeling the medicinal quality of this simple act.
This practice is like tilling the soil of your being.
It is like weeding the earth so it may grow fruit to eat.
This practice is like waking a dormant seed in the opaque ground.
It is like finally being able to see.
Like tuning the frequency of your body,
Of your life,
Of this life.
It is to become love.
To let the heartbreak around us move through us instead of lodge and harden our path and journey.
It is to become so clear that others can see who they too are by what we are reflecting.
In remembering what we love and speaking more of this than anything else,
We create a space where grace and mercy can reach us.
Where we remember we are here above all else to love.
Feeling now the love glowing like a sun within your chest.
Feeling this light with purpose and reverence.
Be wise,
Dearest one,
As you go on with your day.
It is so easy to forget to stay awake to your choice.
Use your voice as a tool to speak of what is good and right.
Of what you most love.
Feel the earth coming back underneath you.
Your toes and fingers.
Your arms and your legs.
Bring your eyes wide and wise to the world in front of you.
Thank you for joining me in this practice.
As many love.
