A Meditation Among the Trees

I just settled in from a meditation retreat this weekend, "Sacred Spaces". One of the ideas was to meet with like-minded people to meditate over the weekend and increase conscious awareness. We covered six principles and did a lot of meditating in various form to facilitate this. Amazing.

One part of my weekend was following a trail on the land that we retreated on. Getting away from the busy city life was challenging at first. Once I quieted inside and focused on the woods and all of nature around me I forgot about work and duties and frenetic things and acknowledged quite a lot. Someone wise advised me to write out short bursts of what that was. Here they are:

+ At first, my mind and my chest pined for the confusion of the hectic city. How comfortable that chaos can be. I'm surprised how easy I let it go and walked on.

+ Wind just stirred up a bit of ways behind me. Catching up to me now. I'm gonna stand still. It is here with me right now. Loud - but quiet. Moves past me. It's like a wave. It's alive like me.

+ Some brush is a light, hazy purple. I thank it out loud for being purple. Felt odd and right all at once.

+ The Earth is wet and sloppy. My shoes are bright white. They mingle. Who cares today? It is okay. It is good even.

+ I see a Jack Rabbit. Whoa. Hey, there! He didn't say hi back. But he didn't ignore me like the city ignores me. Oh, look! He has a trail he is on, too. He's gone.

+ I can hear the gang behind me. I speak then walk off to the side. They pass. I stay out with this field that is open and wide and I stand with intermittent sun.

+ Walking          + Breathing       + Pausing       + Walking
+ Breathing        + Pausing         + Stretching

+ I stopped and "sent" some of this stillness and wholeness to the inner city and to twitter and to Wall Street and to the Middle East. Hope I bring some back in me.

+ I see some dew on a thorny branch. I touched it. I tasted it. I rubbed some on my face and neck.

+ The birds are having a choir practice up top. A lot of 'em showed up for rehearsal. I can pick out the sopranos and the altos. The woodpecker is on percussion. I nod my head a bit to the beat.

+ The air is so clean at first it burns.

+ I thought of work. That's none of my business now. I let it go.

+ Twigs crunch and snap from my weight.

+ I have no sense of time out here. Huh.

+ I am home now. I still smell the woods on me. I hope I smell it for a long time.

We are Literally Star Dust

When the “Big Bang” occured some 14 billion years ago, the only two elements created were hydrogen and helium.

Yet there are over 100 chemical elements. Where do they come from?

We know today that they are forged in the nuclear furnaces of stars, scattered about in exploding supernovae.

Oxygen, chlorine, sodium, potassium, calcium, nitrogen, iron, carbon… all heavy elements are created and released when a dying star explodes. Supernovae eject these into galaxies and around other stars and planets. Eventually they coalesce to form you… and me.

So everything in your body, in my hands typing right now, what comes together in our brains to create “mind”, all came from a star. A sun.

We are quite literally stardust. These are not theories. This is law.

Granted, it is poetic. Somewhat magical even. But it is mathematical, physical and chemical axiom.

So next time we look up at the night sky and stand in wonder at the stars and galaxies, we are literally, undeviatingly, completely and wholly, the Universe Itself looking back on Itself and staring in awe at Itself.

We are stardust. We are the Universe. We are whole.

I am never broken!

I may be bruised. I may even hurt. But I am not broken. I am whole.