The Yogabliss, Two Rivers/River Tree Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  Thank you for coming to practice today.  We explored ways of experiencing gratitude in our hearts – receiving it like a gift.  It’s an emotion that feels good like holding a sleeping baby or stroking the silky back of your cat or your dog’s ears.  Ordinary things that nourish us quietly without a lot of effort.  It’s the solace that’s present beneath the noise of disheartening news.  I guess you could say it’s an inner and outer resource.

I learned our guided meditation from Oren Jay Sofer.  Oren brings so much heart and empathy to the way he teaches.  You can find his guided meditations at his web-site.

Naomi Shihab Nye’s beautiful poem, Small Basket of Happiness, is a delicate reminder of what is available to us when we can slow down, open and receive life’s blessings.

Sharon Olds’ poem, Ode to the Dirt, is a love letter to the earth beneath our feet.  The living blanket that holds carbon and microorganisms on which/who our very survival depends. We humans arose from her and will ultimately return to her.  You can learn more about the science of this perennial truth at Kiss the Ground Soil Science page.

Relaxed Reflection

We can recieve our practice like a gift.  It’s a quiet, still gift we give ourselves when we bring our whole hearted presence to this moment.  Like the poem, Small Basket of Happiness, gifted by Naomi Shihab Nye:

Listen
It would never call your name.
But it would be waiting somewhere close,
perhaps under a crushed leaf
turned from pale green to gold
with no fanfare.
You hadn’t noticed
the gathered hush
of a season’s tipping.
Shadows flowing past
before any light came up,
people whom only a few
might remember,
so much accompaniment
inside a single breeze.
All whom we loved.
In the quiet air lived
the happiness they had given.
And would still give, if only.
You would slow down a minute.
You would bend.

All whom we loved.  In the quiet air lived the happiness they had given.  And would still give, if only. You would slow down a minute.  You would bend.

We can offer our practice as a gift.  We bring our open minds and listening hearts to this moment of being alive.  And how magical it is to call forth memories of those we have loved and savor the gifts we shared together.  You can feel yourself as a thread in a much larger living tapestry – of family, friends, communities – two leggeds, four footeds, winged ones and green beings and waterlings.  How good it is to affirm and to savor the goodness of life – now when it is so difficult.  And how magical it is that we can send forth our love to those who continue to weave the tapestry today and into the future.  Those who are on the front lines of caring, healing, working for justice . . . the young ones and those who are yet to be born.  We are part of what has come before, what is now and what is becoming even beyond our lifetimes.  

In gratitude we savor who and what we care for – and it can be so nearly effortless. As Naomi writes it only asks us to bend.  When make ourselves available to receive that which has been given we can deepen our relationships with ourselves, others and the world.  And at times it can be a challenge to truly listen – to stay present – to keep our hearts open.  Listening is also a grateful offering.  Even in the face of difficulty, misunderstanding, pain and the unknown we can offer our curiosity and caring, our compassion – our listening.  We can experience the magic – the gift – of being changed by another.  We can experience connection and grow.

Right now we can reflect on an experience of open-hearted listening.  Take a moment now to remember what happened when you were able to listen to your inner voice?   What was it like to bend, to pause in stillness and listen for what’s truly in your heart?  . . . .  What were the gifts you received . . . in awareness, in feeling, in opening?  . . . Can you let yourself take this in . . . letting your heart appreciate and savor your inner wisdom?

Right now we can reflect on the worldly voices that are calling us to care.  The voices that might be calling me to learn? It could be friends, family, community members, activists – even the trees and the waters – the lands and wildlife . . . What is speaking to your heart?  . . . What helps you to listen to things that might be difficult to hear?  . . . Can you bend . . . pause in stillness . . . open your heart?  Can you receive what you hear as a gift . . . a gift that might inspire you to move differently through the world? . . . 

We can appreciate and offer ourselves and eachother the gift of presence.  We can lean in and listen with curiosity, care, and compassion.   We can open to receive the grand and humble gifts that are so freely given just by living on this earth.  Grand as the birth of the baby Orcas this month. And there is the humble gift we walk on every day.  In her poem, Ode to Dirt, Sharon Olds sings gratefully about our earth home – the place where we belong: 

Listen
Dear dirt, I am sorry I slighted you,
I thought that you were only the background
for the leading characters—the plants
and animals and human animals.
It’s as if I had loved only the stars
and not the sky which gave them space
in which to shine.  Subtle, various,
sensitive, you are the skin of our terrain,
you’re our democracy.  When I understood
I had never honored you as a living
equal, I was ashamed of myself,
as if I had not recognized
a character who looked so different from me,
but now I can see us all, made of the
same basic materials—
cousins of that first exploding from nothing—
in our intricate equation together.  O dirt,
help us find ways to serve your life,
you who have brought us forth, and fed us,
and who at the end will take us in
and rotate with us, and wobble, and orbit.