Thursday, March 3, 2011

New friends and old...

I tried various meditation practices off and on for probably 30 years before I stumbled into Centering Prayer and found it to be home. 

But for several weeks now I've been starting my day with an interspiritual meditation provided by a class I'm taking.  It's a recording, with music, and a voice inviting me into various aspects of spiritual practice, and quite lovely.

But some part of me has grown increasingly resistant to the prescriptions of the practice; I've been missing the peace of emptying, and the time granted by Centering Prayer for thoughts to wander in and out of their own accord; always welcoming, always releasing and returning...

And so for the last three days I've been playing hooky and meditating on my own again -- which means I get the more obvious ups and downs of that.  The first day was fabulous, a deep and welcome release, but yesterday I finally had to get up and get a notepad and a pen because there were so many to-do's arising (what can I say?  I'm a list-maker...)

And today my brain decided to get all creative on me, because it's beginning to think about an upcoming exhibit.  And this is the result.

Well.

Not really: I was visualizing some much more striking versions of this; tearing the image, gluing it onto a board and writing the poem in white along the tear.  Or maybe printing it on fabric; ripping it and stitching it onto black, with black threads hanging from the pilings.

And I may still try those things; it's always fun to experiment.  But for now I like the simple peace of this, and so I share it with you.  The poem (which you can barely see in this small version) is new, but the image is an old friend, so it's fun to bring it out again and post it here -- just as Centering Prayer and the varied pace of it are old friends; safe and familiar.  Make new friends -- it's always good to challenge your assumptions, and turn things upside down.  But keep the old (one is silver and the other gold).

And who knows?  Maybe the old is ready for some cosmic shift to make it all seem new again...

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