Before you speak, it is necessary for you to listen, for God speaks in the silence of the heart . . .
- Mother Teresa

Welcome to my blog about my morning meditative journey. Beginning on January 1st of this year I began to write about the daily experience of meditating. I have been meditating for several years. There have been many amazing moments of stillness in my life during this journey. I have gained insights into the nature of human beings. As I understand it, that is called knowledge. The most inspiring moments for me have been the ones in which I have seen lessons that apply to my own nature. Some days I just sit, others I have very visual imagery and then there are the days when I hear a still small voice. It is becoming more apparent to me that my meditative journey has to have intent. For the first 6 or 7 weeks of this year I went on a marvelous journey into the valley of my soul, complete with a meadow, a path, a lake and a mountain. Then there came a still period of nothingness and then there came a period of nothing! For a couple of weeks I sat in the "nothing" and wondered what was wrong...then I realized that I was only meditating for the sake of saying I was meditating. There were benefits to my physiology, the ability to pause when agitated being my favorite. But what I realized was I had gotten hooked on being in the valley and when that didn't happen in my minds eye, I began to grasp for it. Grasping is not meditation. Meditation is the opposite. Today I went to meditate with intent. The intent to become calm and perhaps to be enlightened. And what do you know - I made it back to the valley of my soul.

My schedule was off today as I awoke late. There was a worker in my house making a tremendous amount of noise. People were expecting me to lead a noon meditation and I was beginning to panic. It dawned on me that I could sit and listen no matter what. So that's what I did. I went into my meditation room and sat still. There were the levels of relaxing and breathing, physical sensations, passive thoughts and the meadow. Being in the meadow brings me so much pleasure. The visual images are soothing to my soul. It's as if I'm at one with nature. Sometimes in the meadow there have been baskets of virtues, I learned that the virtues are gifts I bring to life. I found my spirit guide in the meadow, his name is Lagan (which I found out means meadow!) There's a lake in the meadow which is my subconscious, and I swam in the lake uncovering painful memories so that I could release them. Once in the lake I had to bring souls back from hell and give them lights. That was really fascinating! I've even climbed the mountain and sat on the edge admiring the vast world below. A couple of times I've even gone before a counsel of elders, that's um well kind of freaky! I've been given wisdom - like, let life unfold like a flower, or life's is between the blades of grass, and I've learned to just sit under the Bodhi Tree that grows beside the lake. Today in the meadow there way a bunny. Now, I've seen monkey's and I know about "monkey mind", I've even let myself be the monkey and swung from tree to tree, but today there was RABBIT.

A Rabbit? Seriously! At first I thought, "I wanted to see Lagan, or climb the mountain and become enlightened anything familiar, but a rabbit? Then I remembered in this place of calmness that I could become the rabbit. So I did. I imagined being a rabbit hopping down the dusty path in the meadow. I smelled grass and flowers. I felt dirt on my paws and whiskers twitching on my face. It was fun to say the least. But I as moved in my minds eye seeing the world from the perspective of a rabbit my ears perked up! No pun intended...and I began to hear the world with different ears. I was listening to the world around me. I heard birds singing and they sounded beautiful calling to each other - warnings and messages of love. I heard crickets chirping melodies of happiness. I heard trees rustling as the wind gently licked at there leaves. I listened and heard stillness. Then I knew that today the message was me to listen with new ears. Listen to others as they share their sorrows and joys, their hopes and fears, their stories of love and loss. I listened with compassion and for the moment I was free.

I am grateful today for moments of stillness. Listening to world around me with new ears has been a blessing!

Thank you for visiting my blog but most of all thank you for listening to me share about my meditative journey!