Take a knee.
These are challenging times that are provoking many questions about who we are and how we see each other.
We might have strong feelings about it or feel confused and uncertain about how we should think and feel,
How we should relate to each other.
There are no easy answers but there are important questions and realities to be faced and not ignored.
I invite you to join me in this work by taking a knee.
So placing one knee and shin on the floor and keeping the other leg bent at the knee in front of you,
Resting your forearm on your thigh and gently closing your eyes and beginning to bring your awareness to your physical sensations by focusing your attention on the sensations of touch and pressure in your body where it makes contact with the floor,
At your knee,
Your shin,
Your feet.
Spend a moment exploring this.
Settling into the posture,
Allowing yourself to be alert and alive to your present moment experience.
In stillness and quiet respect even in acknowledgement of division,
Ignorance and brutality.
Setting an intention to be the change you want to see in the world,
To allow change to come into your heart and your mind,
Moving outwards through your actions.
Bringing your awareness to the changing patterns of physical sensations in the belly as the breath moves in and out of your body.
Perhaps placing a hand on your belly and acknowledging,
I can breathe.
Recognising any strong feelings that arise in your body as you acknowledge that reality,
I can breathe.
And as best you can following the changing physical sensations in the body as the breath enters on the in-breath and all the way through as the breath leaves your body on the out-breath.
Perhaps noticing the freedom to take another breath.
With no need to try to control the breathing in any way.
Simply letting the breath breathe itself.
And as best you can,
Also bringing this attitude of allowing to the rest of your experience.
As if there is nothing with you to be fixed and no particular state to be achieved.
As best you can,
Simply allow your experience to be your experience without needing it to be other than it is.
Noticing when your mind has wandered away from the focus on the breath and the body to thoughts,
To images,
To words,
To strong emotions.
And this is perfectly okay.
It's simply what our minds do and is natural and to be expected.
Perhaps those thoughts,
Images,
Words,
Emotions are triggered by your breath or by the act of taking a knee.
So take a moment to gently investigate how it makes you feel physically and emotionally.
Be aware of these reactions and try to bring a sense of allowing and accepting to them.
Then gently escort the awareness back to a focus on the changing pattern of physical sensations in the posture or the breath in the body.
Renewing the intention to be present,
To be alive,
To matter.
And as best you can,
Bringing a quality of compassion to your awareness.
Both compassion for yourself and compassion for all beings.
A sense of treating every thought as just a thought.
Every breath as just a breath.
Every person as just a person.
Recognising that saying black lives matter doesn't mean that they matter more or less than any other.
Just as this breath matters but no more or less than any other breath.
And yet this practice is a privilege.
This breath is a privilege.
This life is a privilege and this moment is a privilege.
So as best you can,
Just kneeling,
Just breathing,
Just being,
Just allowing,
Just mattering.
Thank you for making a difference.
Thank you.
Thank you.
