Day 26 of ? of meditation & blogging!

14 minutes 39 seconds

Friends,

I did my usual preparations of coffee and ice water. I bopped into a couple of ongoing online conversations catching up here and replying there. ! watched a brief video. I had had a good nights sleep and felt fairly rested and relaxed, if feeling more of the follies of my 52 years rather than the fabulosity. Then I sat down and synced my timer and the music, this track having a strong drum beat, and I began.

The music was rather easy to focus upon, and a touch to loud, I adjusted the volume slightly as I found the rhythm of my breaths and began to trace their routes. I found myself flowing into that place of quiet and calm within me even as a few stray thoughts presented themselves. I acknowledged them and let them go. A few times I mentally repeated my chosen charm or mantra of “It Is What It Is” to the beat of the drum to chase some stray thoughts away. There was the rhythm of my breath, it’s route through my body, and the music. Thoguhts came and went. At some point the thoughts and many strongly visual images began to start flickering past my minds eye like a rapid fire slide show. For a moment I simply acknowledged them as thoughts and tried to let them go, yet they kept flashing past.

I thought once more of my mantra “It is what it is” and in that moment I had an epiphany. Why pour energy or effort into showing away this manifestation of my thoughts? The flickering slide show could simply flicker away, the thoughts were what they were and some moments are what they are. Instead of grasping white knuckled onto my attention and awareness, I continued to gently hold onto them; neither letting the humming bird of my mind start racing through them nor allowing memories or emotions to rise or fall in response to them. They were what they were, it is what it is, and what it was for an unknown span of time was my breath and its’ path and the music and deep and abiding sense of inner calm and quiet.

The timer chimed and I silenced it and it continued to be what it was for a few moments more…

It is a strange and delightful aspect of a healthy daily meditative mindfulness practice that the lessons and epiphanies and sometimes profound spiritual moments we can experience can happen. Yet even in their happening, the ways they can change our spiritual journey or lead us to places of growth and blossoming, they are still what they are, the merest side effect of the work that is daily mindfulness practice.

What epiphanies or lessons have you found in your own spiritual journeys? Have they touched you or transformed you? Have they been side trips or distractions on your journey? I look forward to your answers!

Bliss & Blessed Be,
Pax / Geoffrey