Find yourself in a comfortable position,
Slowing and deepening your breath,
Relaxing into the force of gravity,
Using your mind's eye to map the area around your body and using your breath to fill that space with relaxation and ease.
And as you exhale,
Fully empty the breath,
Noticing the space between your breath and allowing your mind to be an ally as you imagine this architecture of yourself to soften and open.
And in your awareness,
You find yourself in a big open space,
Noting what that feels like and what it looks like.
You see yourself with feet planted firmly in the ground,
Standing tall,
Looking forward as far as you can see.
And you on your left side,
With your mother,
Just feeling,
Sensing,
Seeing her presence,
Noticing her expression,
Maybe her age and what she's wearing,
Just breathing into the awareness behind you on the left,
Where your mother is standing tall as well.
As you take a deep breath in,
Your focus shifts to your right side behind your right shoulder.
Your father is standing there.
Maybe you notice his feet and work your way up to his face.
Maybe you feel him as an energy.
Maybe you can hear him just mapping in this image of your father behind your right shoulder.
And then breathing your awareness back into your heart,
Feeling yourself as the apex of this triangle that is formed between your mother on your left and your father on your right.
Them standing aligned to each other behind you,
Maybe even seeing an invisible thread connecting the center of each of their hearts to you and to each other.
Noticing what this shape and what this architecture does to how your body is feeling.
Noticing and honoring that it is they who gave you the gift of life.
And on the next inhale,
You move further back with your awareness,
Mapping your maternal grandparents behind your mother.
They standing behind her the way your parents are standing behind you.
Maternal grandmother on the left,
Maternal grandfather on the right,
Forming another triangle,
Opening and expanding through the bloodline of the matrilineal side.
Noticing how they are connected to her,
She is connected to you through the flow of life that moves between generations.
On the right,
You do the same mapping behind your father,
The paternal grandmother on his right forming another triangle,
Creating a flying V,
A grand triangle of grandparents standing in a row behind the parents who are standing in a row or behind you.
Just feeling noticing,
Maybe you know their names,
Maybe you don't.
Maybe they're alive,
Maybe they have left their bodies.
Feeling their energetic signature as it forms behind you in this way.
And opening and expanding the creative potential of your imagination to invite and include your grandparents standing behind your grandparents in the same way.
So that this opening can include another generation,
Encompassing them as well in this awareness that they are the reason you have been given the gift of life.
And with your breath and with your mind's eye,
Continue this back as far as you can go.
Maybe you know the names of more family members,
Maybe there are some you haven't heard of.
Maybe you see them wearing the clothes of their country of origin or their time period of being alive,
Just following that.
As back as far as you can realize,
Hundreds and thousands of people,
All of whom have contributed to the gift that is your life.
Standing in the flow of this energy,
Allowing it to move like a river from the beginning of time to the present moment.
And as this energy guides and flows forward,
You notice that way in the back,
One of your ancestors is holding a gift and they pass it forward,
Moving from generation to generation,
Passing this gift from hand to hand,
Flowing down the river of time.
And then the gift gets passed through your grandparents to your parents and is presented to you.
And as it is presented to you,
You turn around to receive it.
And when you do,
You see the faces of all those who have come before you,
Looking back at you.
And as you receive their gaze,
You are filled with the knowing of the gift of your own life.
You take into your hands this gift,
Notice what it looks like and what it feels like,
And place it somewhere on your body,
In your mind's eye holding it to assimilate and integrate into your body.
And with a single bow,
You thank them for all that has come before.
