These words were written in another June – 2023 – and are a good reminder now, given the changes that are both here and coming:
Good morning friends – Part of my daily practice is to read, in a way similar to an old Christian tradition called lectio divina. I generally choose a book or reading randomly, without a specific aim – pulling a book off of a shelf or a pile, opening to whichever page appears. Reading what is there and then letting it settle a bit. Watching for my responses, my wonderings, my surprise or acknowledgement. Sometimes I return to words I know well, and let them speak again; often they speak in new ways. This practice is as much listening as reading, and the listening happens in silence. In this way I experience openings – to my thoughts and feelings, to a moment, to a day.
It’s easy to simply keep moving in ways we are used to, along paths we have created in our minds and bodies, in directions we call normal. The world, our lives, offer so much more – more horizons, more paths, more colors and shapes. It confuses and confounds us that almost everything “more” begins with awareness of breath, and the small, imperceptible steps to deepen that awareness.
We begin again right here. It may look like the same place, a “normal” morning or moment. It is anything but. At the very least, this moment has the potential for everything new, things we’ve never even dreamed of. They are not far away, they are deep within. We may find or hear or see them, or we may not. The breath will be our guide, if we let it. Like words randomly chosen then followed or listened to in silence. Like doors that have always been there, which finally open and invite us in.
May there be moments like this for you this week, May you pause to follow your breath, and find yourself where it takes you. May you give thanks for another day given. Sending love to you all — Jill