Hello friends and welcome to this meditation that will invite you to come to a deeper place of rest.
So as we begin I invite you to close or lower your eyes.
And to take a few deeper,
Wider breaths.
Pausing at the end of the inhale.
And as you slowly exhale allowing the shoulders to drop.
Letting your body sink to be held and supported.
If your feet are on the floor be aware of that connection.
That sense of being grounded and rooted.
Letting attention drift slowly away from the head.
The noise,
The to-do lists.
And being attentive to those deeper parts in the body.
The stillness,
The quiet.
And in this still space spend a few moments checking in.
How am I doing?
What's going on for me in these moments,
This time under the surface?
What feelings have been present recently?
What thoughts have been on repeat?
How's my body?
Spend a few moments simply checking in with yourself.
So as we come into this meditation I want to begin with a small short story.
And the story begins with me and my friend,
My swimming friend,
Going for a swim last week on a blustery wintery day.
And where we swim is a pebble beach and when you go into the water you quite quickly go out of your depth.
And the water where we swim,
The sea where we swim can get quite rough and bouncy.
And the waves can break in powerfully onto the pebbles.
And last week as we came to swim we got changed and were feeling a bit unsure about whether to go in or not.
We stood on the edge up to our ankles and surveyed the sea.
The tide was low and there was a strong pull back as the water receded and there were waves coming in.
And afterwards we both said that that inner voice in us was saying not today.
But we decided to go in.
So we got in,
Went through the waves and started bobbing around in the cold chill of the water.
And we stayed in for our usual ten minutes or so and then decided that we ought to start getting out to give ourselves plenty of time to get out.
And as we turned we both felt uneasy.
I turned to my friend and said,
Oh I feel a bit scared,
This doesn't feel good.
And we just carried on towards the shore.
And we were getting near to shore and I tried to put my feet down and they didn't reach the bottom.
My friend was a little bit ahead of me and suddenly I looked back and I saw this huge wave coming towards me and I knew it was going to break over the top of me.
And I let out a scream and got wiped out by the wave.
And when I came back up my friend was all bedraggled,
She'd lost her swimming hat,
She was coughing and spluttering,
Crawling up out of the water.
And somehow I managed to catch another wave,
God sent me a wave that brought me far enough in that I could find my feet.
And I managed to get out of the water,
Crawling up through the pebbles.
By the time we got out we were both exhausted,
My friend had been tumbled round three times,
She was cut and bruised and had hurt her wrists.
We were both very shaken and realised that we had had an encounter with the sea,
The dangerous wild sea that we weren't keen to repeat.
So we changed and we did our usual sitting on the beach drinking hot spicy chai tea and we talked it out and talked it out.
And I've since gone back into the sea,
Into a kinder,
Calmer sea.
But that experience led me to think about this meditation that so often in life we can feel that that's what life does to us,
That we enter into it.
There are times when we can just feel taken out and taken out wave after wave,
Spun around,
Tossed and turned,
Battered and bruised,
Bedraggled,
Breathless,
Shaken.
So I invite you to connect with any of those feelings that you've been having recently.
Any feelings of overwhelm,
Of feeling like life has tossed you around,
Has battered and bruised.
And I invite you to imagine clambering out of that wild sea and finding yourself on the shore.
You've reached the beach and maybe now you find yourself on warm sand.
And having come out of the chill of the sea you are maybe lying down on the warmth of the beach and the sun shining.
And you're beginning to feel the warmth on your body,
On your skin.
That sunshine is coming as a gift,
As a balm,
As restoration to your tired,
Worn out self.
And I welcome you in these moments to receive rest.
Come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest.
Give yourself space and time in these moments to catch your breath.
To let go,
To simply let go of the fight,
Of the energy required to survive.
To let the burdens fall from your shoulders,
From your body.
To let the burdens be lifted off by the kindness,
The love,
The tenderness of God.
Come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest.
In these moments nothing is required.
Simply be here,
On the sand,
In the warmth of the sun,
Receiving restoration,
Receiving renewed hope,
Receiving grace.
Know that you are loved and seen and so wholly accepted in every way.
Here there is no judgement,
There are no opinions,
There is simply a welcome to come as you are and be as you are in this moment.
Come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest.
So as we come towards the end of this meditation,
In the quietness be aware of what you notice.
You may become aware of what you need,
What you need to receive from God,
Of what you need to give yourself.
You may need to receive the permission to rest,
To give yourself the rest that you need for some self-care.
You may become aware of a grace that you need to receive,
If so welcome it,
Let it be given.
We welcome the tender love of Holy Spirit to take care of you,
To see you,
To embrace you.
Come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest.
My friends I pray,
Rest in your weariness,
Grace,
Hope and great love.
Amen.
Thank you.
