A real winter in Arizona with record breaking, cool, wet days has sent Michael and me hiking in the surrounding mountain parks for our daily walks and meditations. Clouds and snow define the mountains' multiple crags and layers which are usually flatten to silhouettes against the bright Sapphire sky. Those mountains, drawn closer by a new perspective, seem to dwarf us as we walk the ridges and valleys of the foothills. Sounds are muffled except for the bright jingle of snow melt flowing in branching arteries through the dry river beds, locally called "washes" (an ironic name, I used to think, until I witnessed my first rainy season out here.) The beauty of these forces of nature remind us of our humble position in the long term of it all.
When I first came to "The Program" the concept of meditation was beyond me. How do you meditate? What positions to take and what "oohhhmmmm's" to say? And what good would it do anyway? Since childhood I had been familiar with daydreaming much to my teachers' annoyance, but meditation seemed much more formal and a lot more work than that. A person in the program I respected enough to ask suggested I just take a walk and try not to think about anything. What a concept when my troubled mind was racing constantly. At first I could only get a few moments of quiet in my mind; then I was off and racing again. When I complained to the person, she just said. "Practice." When later I told her it didn't work, she just said, "Patience." And finally the day a spontaneous thought came to my quiet mind and gave me an answer I needed, I excitedly ran to tell her and all she said was "It keeps getting better."
Today I can achieve that state of open-mind meditation walking among the snow bright mountains of Tucson or doing mindless acts like mowing the lawn in Cleveland or working in my garden. It feels very close to daydreaming except thoughts are generated by a force beyond me which today I am comfortable calling a Higher Power. Sometimes there are revelations, but generally meditation just brings a peaceful feeling that the the world and my life is unfolding just as it is supposed to and I do not need to understand all of it.
When I first came to "The Program" the concept of meditation was beyond me. How do you meditate? What positions to take and what "oohhhmmmm's" to say? And what good would it do anyway? Since childhood I had been familiar with daydreaming much to my teachers' annoyance, but meditation seemed much more formal and a lot more work than that. A person in the program I respected enough to ask suggested I just take a walk and try not to think about anything. What a concept when my troubled mind was racing constantly. At first I could only get a few moments of quiet in my mind; then I was off and racing again. When I complained to the person, she just said. "Practice." When later I told her it didn't work, she just said, "Patience." And finally the day a spontaneous thought came to my quiet mind and gave me an answer I needed, I excitedly ran to tell her and all she said was "It keeps getting better."
Today I can achieve that state of open-mind meditation walking among the snow bright mountains of Tucson or doing mindless acts like mowing the lawn in Cleveland or working in my garden. It feels very close to daydreaming except thoughts are generated by a force beyond me which today I am comfortable calling a Higher Power. Sometimes there are revelations, but generally meditation just brings a peaceful feeling that the the world and my life is unfolding just as it is supposed to and I do not need to understand all of it.
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