Meditation gone awry and found again

Meditation gone awry and found again

This morning as I sat intending to focus my mind I found instead the wild elephant of old.  This mind of mine was pushing and pulling completely chaotic and disruptive.  I watched my mind careen down path after path captivated by whatever arising disruption was occurring.

What happened to my steady breath?  Gone.  I was, yet again, beginning, as if I had never meditated before.

As I realized my unruly mind I laughed and lightened my own mental heaviness. My trying so hard was making the process harder.

That allowed for my mind to calm, to harness the wild elephant.  As I felt the rise and fall of each breath I was grateful for the simple call to be present.  To rest in this moment and discover it more fully.

[What better way to illustrate this communion than with Gregory Colbert’s images from Ashes and Snow exhibition]

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