Hello my friends and welcome to this meditation of hope and celebration of darkness.
Let's begin this meditation by closing our eyes if it is safe and helpful to do so.
I invite you to relax your body,
Quiet your mind and just observe a spirit of slowness and quiet,
Of stillness and quiet.
And then I invite you to take a long,
Slow,
Deep breath in,
Pause for a second and then slowly let it out.
And again in and out.
One more long,
Slow,
Deep breath in and then slowly back out.
And in this stillness I invite you to adopt an attitude of gratitude and non-judgment,
Especially toward yourself.
Often in today's world,
We can be so consumed with what we are or are not getting accomplished that we forget to give ourselves space and grace to just be.
Meditation however is not about what we are or are not getting accomplished.
Meditation is a time to just be.
And so let's just be without judgment or admonishment.
Even if you have a distracting thought,
As we all do at times,
I invite you to simply see it and let it pass through,
Again without judgment or admonishment.
And once we've observed a spirit of stillness and of non-judgment,
We will organically flow into a heart and mindset of peace and of loving kindness.
And for this particular meditation,
I'd like us to embrace a heart and mindset of hope.
Let's take a long,
Slow,
Deep breath in,
Breathing in hope,
And slowly back out.
And I'd like to take a moment to just examine what we put our hope in.
Often we can put such an emphasis on light,
Equating light with hope,
Light with goodness,
And sometimes in the wake of that,
We can tend to equate darkness with bad or evil.
And part of embracing an attitude of non-judgment is to let go of these notions as well.
To let go of the notion of light being inherently good and darkness being inherently bad.
For this meditation,
Let's think of some ways that we put hope in darkness itself.
Some of the things that are beautiful and helpful about darkness.
Remembering that darkness and light depend upon each other to exist and be seen.
Without the darkness,
There is no light,
And vice versa.
In this way,
And many others,
We celebrate the darkness.
Let's observe some of the reasons to celebrate darkness and some of the ways we find hope in darkness.
Let's hold space for each statement.
Darkness can hide and protect.
Darkness can hide and protect.
Darkness invites us to rely on senses other than sight.
Darkness invites us to rely on other senses other than sight.
Darkness invites us to rely on other senses other than sight.
Black is beautiful.
Black is beautiful.
Seeds sprout in darkness,
Bringing new life.
Seeds sprout in darkness,
Bringing new life.
Only in darkness can we see the stars.
Only in darkness can we see the stars.
Only in darkness can we see the stars.
An infant grows in the dark of the womb.
An infant grows in the dark of the womb.
Either way,
Darkness brings life.
Darkness brings life.
Dark is holy mystery.
Dark calls us to rest.
Dark calls us to rest.
Rejuvenating us,
Reviving us,
Giving us life.
The darkness invites us into rest,
Into stillness,
Into life.
The darkness calls us into rest,
Invites us into stillness,
Rejuvenates,
Gives us life.
The darkness gives us life.
In the darkness,
We find hope.
In the darkness,
We find hope.
A hope for new life.
In the darkness,
We celebrate.
We celebrate rest.
We celebrate seeds.
We celebrate protection.
We celebrate our senses other than sight.
We celebrate that in the darkness,
Only in the darkness can we see the stars.
We celebrate the hope that is found in darkness.
We celebrate the hope that is found in darkness.
If your body has been in the same position for the duration of this meditation,
Or if it is simply helpful to do so,
I invite you to give your body a light,
Gentle stretch.
And as we slowly ease out of this meditation,
I invite you to ever so gently,
Taking your time,
Slowly flutter your eyes open.
Thank you so much for sharing this tender,
Sacred moment with me today,
My friends.
May grace and peace,
Hope and darkness be with you.
