Bring your attention to your breath,
Not trying to control it,
Just noticing how your body draws in life on its own,
How it knows what to do.
Just noticing your body breathing and letting your awareness ride the waves of the breath.
Picturing now the moment of your birth and with a single breath being present to the first year of your life,
However you might picture it.
Holding yourself like a baby and then picturing the second year of your life on the next breath.
Counting breaths,
One breath per year of your life.
Riding each wave of breath as you see your life unfold from birth through childhood.
Counting each year,
Each breath,
Evoking each year as an image,
A felt sense,
A sound or a smell,
Riding each year like a gentle wave,
Not holding too tightly.
Bringing your awareness to these passing years with a light touch.
For the traumatic years,
Watch how quickly they pass on that single breath.
For the wonderful years,
Watch them rise and vanish.
Letting your life unfold without judgment but with great curiosity and tenderness.
If you lose count,
No need to start over.
Simply return to the last year you remember and begin counting again.
Be present to each year as it arises and fades with vivid aliveness.
Just notice you are taking this journey from your safe,
Protected place here in meditation.
In the difficult years,
Just ride the wave.
In the pleasant years,
Just ride the wave.
If you feel emotions,
Numbness,
Let them come and let them go.
Let the holding your life unfold with great tenderness and intimacy.
Let them come and let them go.
Be holding the whole movement of the waves of your life.
Let them come and let them go.
Let them go.
Now,
Whether you've come to the present year or not,
Gently pause.
You can always return to this meditation and begin where you left off.
For now,
Behold the whole movement of the waves of your life and feel into this present time,
The moment to which all these years have led you,
This moment,
This you,
And hold yourself with great tenderness.
Helping a sense of gratitude for the life force that has sustained you all these years,
Guided you over all of these waves,
Big and small,
To lead you to this moment here.
And offering yourself a blessing now for this current wave of life that you're in and for all the future waves,
Offering yourself your own kindness.
Wishing yourself buoyancy and stability and peace of mind and great clarity as you see the moment you're in,
In the context of the whole sea of your life in all its beautiful and fruity.
Amen.
