Hello there,
Dear ones.
This is a practice that's a contemplative and a healing practice.
It's one for which you may want to have a notebook and a pen nearby,
Just to jot down anything that may come up for you in this practice.
It's also a poetry practice.
I'll be reading a poem.
It's one that I wrote myself,
And it's one that invites you to consider what is it in you,
Deep inside the most true and golden part of you,
That wants to be known,
That wants to be invited into the light and into being.
In the course of this human life,
I don't think any of us escape influences,
Internal and external,
That encourage us to close off parts of ourselves,
From ourselves and from the world.
Many of us have experienced trauma.
Uncertain we all experience stress and oftentimes overwhelm.
All these factors that keep us busy and on the move and shut off in some ways from the deepest,
Most tender and oftentimes the richest parts of ourselves.
This poem invites you to explore that,
To explore what's hidden away,
Perhaps for safekeeping.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to read through the poem,
And then I'll pause for a bit,
Just to give you a chance to let it resonate through you.
And then I'll read it again with pauses between different stanzas of the poem.
And you may find that things will bubble up that you'll want to write down,
Or images may come that you'll want to draw.
Just see what happens for you.
And if you find that it would be helpful for you to have a copy of the poem,
Feel free to be in touch with me,
To contact me,
And I'll send you a copy.
So here is the poem,
Which is called Welcome.
Welcome.
What is within you that longs to come forth?
What waits for you to say,
Welcome,
Come in?
Will sit across from you,
Hopeful and shy,
Breathing your breath,
Humming its brave song deep into the gut and bone of you.
What laps against your hard places with the patience of water?
What is carving a channel to hold a river that yearns toward the vast ocean of your wholeness?
What calls like the language of light,
Bleeding through the tight fingers of your hands,
Your hands pressed tight against your eyes,
Your eyes also squeezed tight?
What blows on your eyelids,
Hoping you'll open?
What asks you to be true as dirt,
Pulls you to your knees,
To your belly,
Compels you to curl at the breast of the earth,
To listen for a heartbeat?
And when you fall into dreaming,
What whispers in your ear,
Wake up,
Wake up?
What is within you that longs to come forth?
What waits for you to say,
Yes?
Allowing yourself now to just sit in awareness with whatever sensations arise in the body,
Whatever images,
Thoughts,
Associations arise.
Just allowing it all to play through the field of your awareness.
And now,
I'm going to read the poem again in second.
Welcome.
What is within you that longs to come forth?
What waits for you to say,
Welcome,
Come in.
We'll sit across from you,
Hopeful and shy.
Breathing your breath,
Humming its brave song,
Deep into the gut and bone of you.
What laps against your hard places with the patience of water?
What is carving a channel to hold a river that yearns towards the vast ocean of your wholeness?
What calls like the language of light bleeding through the tight fingers of your hands?
Your hands pressed tight against your eyes,
Your eyes also squeezed tight.
What blows on your eyelids,
Hoping you'll open?
What asks you to be true as dirt,
Pulls you to your knees,
To your belly,
Compels you to curl at the breast of the earth,
To listen for a heartbeat?
And when you fall into dreaming,
What whispers in your ear,
Wake up,
Wake up.
What is within you that longs to come forth?
What waits for you to say,
Yes?
What is within you that longs to come forth?
What waits for you to say,
Yes?
As we conclude our time together,
I truly hope that this has been a useful practice for you,
And that something has bubbled up for you.
And if not now,
Perhaps later,
Sometimes things need to percolate,
Sometimes seeds need to rest before they're ready to grow.
Namaste and thank you for practicing with me.
