Welcome.
It may seem impossible for you to let go of the life swirling about you,
And you probably don't want to anyway.
But it is always possible to step aside for a time to find some time for what you need as you prepare for rest.
Sometimes the easiest path is the physical one.
Find your breath.
Feel it move inside you.
Sometimes the most profound thing you can do is breathe.
Take a few moments to breathe.
Maybe you had a snow globe as a child,
Or one of your friends did.
Maybe you have one sitting in your room right now.
A small plastic or glass globe with something inside.
Perhaps a statue of liberty.
Maybe a castle in France.
Maybe tiny reindeer.
Perhaps one with a bright red nose.
Take a few moments now to envision the snow globe of your dreams.
The perfect snow globe.
It might be small or large,
But be sure to include lots and lots of snow.
Envision features of your snow globe large and small.
Indulge yourself for a short time with this act of creation.
Now you might imagine grabbing your snow globe and shaking it up.
Make the snow swirl as if it were being blasted by the wind to end all winds.
Watch it spin for a bit,
And then shake it up some more.
And when your snow globe is at its most wild,
When all the tiny structures within are hidden by the swirling snow,
You might imagine yourself inside it,
At the center of your own personal maelstrom of thoughts and obligations,
Represented by the snow spinning around you.
Take a seat on the battlement of a castle,
Or astride a reindeer,
And watch the commotion,
The pandemonium.
Maybe this is how you felt when you sat down for a restful meditation tonight,
As if you were in the center of a tempest.
Maybe this is how you feel a lot of the time,
Blasted by currents of water and wind,
Obligations and emotions,
Your needs and the needs of others,
Nearly made blind by the swirling snow.
Maybe you can't even see to the edges of your globe,
The edges of your own personal whirlpool.
Maybe you have even forgotten the world that exists outside your own world.
Maybe it is the shadow world,
Made immaterial by the intensity of what happens inside your sphere.
Continue to imagine yourself sitting in your snow globe,
Houses,
Family members,
Broken cars and non-functional garage doors,
Bad things you had for lunch because you had no time.
They all churn around you,
Like the cows and pigs and people in rowboats and wicked witches on Dorothy's journey to Oz.
It is not in your power to stop all of the swirling permanently.
Life isn't like that.
But it is in your power to stop it for a time,
To find the quiet place at the center,
To find a space of observation,
A space of calm.
Take a few minutes first,
Though,
To acknowledge all the parts of your life that swirl around you.
Allow yourself to fully inhabit your snow globe of obligation and emotion.
Let yourself be buffeted for a few breaths.
Now you might use your imagination to envision that the powers that agitate your round,
Plastic world,
Those within you and those beyond your control,
Have ceased their troubling.
Imagine that whatever forces there are that agitate your snow globe,
That trouble your waters,
Have relented.
Allow yourself to observe the swirling bits of whiteness as they still move around you.
Notice as they begin to slow,
As they begin to sink a little bit each time they pass before your eyes,
Gyring downward towards the floor.
More light comes in as the first flakes fall to the ground,
And then still more,
Like the brightening in the east,
Through a cloudy sky before the sun rises,
The first pink blush of morning.
Allow all the swirling bits of your life to settle slowly around you.
Notice each one as it slows and falls.
Bit by bit,
Each comes to rest on the earth,
One after the other.
Bit by bit,
The currents of water that held them up give up their energy.
Notice snowflakes beyond counting,
Snowflakes that obscured all light,
Swirled around you.
But now small beams of light shine through the cyclone,
One beam of light,
And then another,
And then yet another,
Until you are bathed in the pure light of day.
And then a time comes when one final snowflake is all that remains of all the snowflakes that had surrounded you.
Perhaps it is one that you have a special name for.
And then it too falls,
Wafting gently down to the surface,
Finding a soft,
Resting spot.
And finally you find the stillness at the center of your snow globe,
Your own center,
Your own place of calm.
It is a serenity of your own making.
A tranquility you created with your own power.
All is calm around you.
All is tranquil.
The swirling snowflakes are a distant memory.
But the peace that follows their fall is complete,
Taking up all the space within your globe.
Let that peace carry you to a place without worry,
A place without stress.
That place is waiting for you.
Take rest.
