your true self. a meditation.

Pause for a moment and take a few deep breaths.
Notice your breath until you feel as though you are only the inhalations and exhalations.

Then, find your center.
Notice it.
Let your next inhalation begin at this center.

As you breathe, describe your center to yourself. Notice where it is and what it feels connected to and from.

Imagine that this center is your true self.

Allow yourself to notice and sit with whatever comes up for you.

*****

My center is in the middle of my chest, at the core of my heart, in between my breasts. As I breathe deeply, I feel like this center connects me to the earth and the sky to all that lives and all that has passed on before me. This center feels like my lifeline to knowledge and truth and hope and grace. My truest self lives here.

It is: My soul's home.

sitting in the quiet

I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart: I am, I am, I am.
Sylvia Plath

i am sitting in the quiet right now. breathing. trying to remind myself that i have all the answers inside me...that i just have to be still enough to hear them.

true essence

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.
Ambrose Redmoon

You. Hold on tight to what you know. Sit for just a moment and take a breath. And notice what you know to be true. What you know to be real. What resonates deep within. Breathe. Just notice. It may be that only shadows of what you know to be true appear today. And tomorrow. And the day after that. And the day after that. But, when the moment comes and you make the choice to hold on to courage by your fingertips as you acknowledge the fear that lives within you…that moment that is today…that is the moment when the shadows shift into the glowing flame that is your heart. That is the moment you begin to become the true essence of yourself.

a prayer

Tonight, I want to share a prayer in the form of a quote from a wise man from my favorite show, The West Wing:

“This guy’s walking down the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can’t get out. A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, ‘Hey you. Can you help me out?’ The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up, ‘Father, I’m down in this hole can you help me out?’ The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a friend walks by, ‘Hey, Joe, it’s me can you help me out?’ And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, ‘Are you stupid? Now we’re both down here.’ The friend says, ‘Yeah, but I’ve been down here before and I know the way out.’”

- John Spencer as Leo McGarry on The West Wing (Season 2, Episode 10)

May all people who feel as though they are in a hole realize they are not alone.

You are not alone.

take a breath

The Buddha says, "Praise and blame, gain and loss, pleasure and sorrow come and go like the wind. To be happy, rest like a giant tree in the midst of them all."

[updated to add: my talented husband snapped this photo in our backyard a couple weeks ago. a buddha wrapped in snow.]