The emotional benefits of practicing meditation can be significant. At our mid-week, mid-day mediation group yesterday, one of our participants shared his experience. He explained that after an initial focus on his body, breath, and physical comfort, he was able to feel “a shroud of sadness” come over him and speak to him, calling him by name and saying to him, “You have no control over this. Be with it. Keep moving forward.” The “shroud” then lifted and he felt an emotional relief. This was a gift to him, to us when shared, and possibly to you in my telling.
Our first meditation session in the Meditation Garden was and is profound for me. I have made a conscious choice, with Karl, to create this space. The fact that simply holding the space for people invites such great healing potential is deeply moving and is beyond me. The reality of sharing our space with caregivers and receivers journeying now through illness and uncertainty is an edge I’m both pleased and sad to walk. This is the nature of the wounded healer. My heart glowed when I had previously envisioned sharing our gardens with others on a regular basis, such as an eight week meditation group. It feels fulfilling and healing on a deep level for me, to realize this much-needed service, yet I am very much with the people who are now experiencing illness and I experience their sadness, which also rekindles the fire in me. Why so many long-term illnesses? Why? Without the fire, there is no passion. Without passion, there is no action.
Moving forward with a listening heart,
vision, inquiry, and action,
~ Mary