My gentle hill, I rest
beside you in the dark
in a place warmed by my body,
where by ardor, grace, work,
and loss, I belong.
~ Wendell Berry
Thank you for the enthusiastic response to my invitation (see comments to the last post). I do believe we’re on to something!
By participating in this 51-week enterprise, you’ve entered the ancient stream of pilgrims and seekers. Bring whatever baggage you have — chances are you’ll be discarding some along the way. Pilgrims tend to travel light. Everything you’ll need is right in front of you. Be aware of expectations of what this journey will be like and where you may end up — thy too will change. May you be blessed with courage and curiosity. Let uncertainty be your guide.
What else can you do?
The guided meditation (below) runs ten minutes. I suggest you practice it more than once, every day if at all possible. It may yield different insights each time, even if they won’t be apparent immediately. Be patient.
Please set aside a few minutes beforehand to get settled and afterwards to reflect. Find a quiet place to rest, dim the lights, and turn off the devices that beep. Adjust the volume on the right side of audio bar below.
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This meditation is inspired by Stephen Levine’s Who dies? An investigation of conscious living and conscious dying. Anchor Books, 1982, pp. 20-21.
Hi Peter. Thank you look forward to the guided meditation, its been a long time. Hope you are well.
Kind regards
Paul
Thank you ! You are a wonderful teacher taking us into places we fear to go with compassion and kindness.
Yes, I want to follow the path you speak of; seeing this year as if it were the last one I have on earth. I say it and as I do I feel the challenge and puzzlement of this.
As you say, pilgrims just go, without signposts. That is how it feels, yet I really feel the need to do this. I think I will not post comments on the blog, but perhaps I will feel differently about that later.
to share with you all – as a means of anchoring my own participation – that following the death of my father this past year, my mother has now joined him, having passed away last week. What greater gift can I take from this than to value the life that I have – in gratitude
Peter, thank you for sharing this journey.