Meditation, among other things, is training the mind to one point.  Focusing on a flame, or the breath, or a leaf on the river.  Training the mind like the monkey it is, to keep her eye on the banana.  How wonderful it would be for me if I could point my mind to a single thought of kindness.

No matter the belief in betrayal, abandonment or heartache, to have my mind see everything in a field of kindness would shift my next actions.  Would I still be human?!  HA!  There’s the monkey mind, comparing, criticizing, judging, self-serving.  I want what I want when I want it.

Focusing on kindness means that I’d see more clearly the path of kindness to myself, to overflow with the good and plenty that I am and make decisions based on embracing that loveliness.  Instead of tossing away money to others for screwy motivations, or ignoring my security, taking risks.

Perhaps so many lives living in the field and the woods, living off the land as a point of life and focus, it is a challenge to realign myself with the here and now and long-term planning.  A focused point of kindness while I watch the tangled web inside me open up gently to Her Love.

Oh Sweet One, these things I pray: see You more clearly, love You more dearly and follow You more nearly.  I don’t really need to follow You, as You are within and around me always.

It is like the flame wondering where the fire is.  Or the mouse thinking the cat is not watching at every moment.  Yet reminding myself that I am in the Presence is the practice.  My mind wanders as an ant carrying a monster grain of sand to the mound, or an antelope standing on an anthill imagining she is on top of the world.

In the midst of messed plans, broken car, disturbing wakes of relationship vibrations, if I can sit and remember that soft Harmony that sings through All That Is, all my human faculties relax and rest back i the hammock of Her Smile.

Tao is the flow, the Way.  The practice of “going with the flow” is ancient.  And the practice is hard.  Where does the flow go?  Sometimes water crashes down hundreds of feet to sharp deadly rocks.  Sometimes it is a miniscule trickle.  Everything bends to the flow: trees, rocks, villages lost in tsunamis, hearts lost in twisted love.

Love is a hard one to know the flow.  We are buffeted since before birth with what love is supposed to look like: do you give your son a lot of money to start a business that he is seems unprepared for?  Or do you just support him when his luck is down?  Do you try to take care of yourself with retirement planning or do you go with the absurd but strong feeling that you don’t really care.  Is love taking care of someone or is it taking care of yourself first–or is that selfishness?  Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it.  That’s love for you, a test between faith and flow.

I await the gentleness of Her compassion that forever flows out of Her curved bottle.  I sit beneath Her statue just so Her eyes rest on me.  Just look at me, and I will know where to find You.  Whisper in my ears of silence, and I will turn my head to find You always.

Gods are personal forms that embrace me, soothe me, talk to me and love me always.  But the Tao is endless, limitless and formless.  It is bigger than a god, because it encompasses all.  Some days I rely on Her voice soft behind my ear.  Other days I walk with a 9 foot tall warrior with arrows of love.  There are days when I need a gremlin or a fairy god. 

But every day I rest in the Tao.  It is not comforting, and helps me breathe.  It will be with me when I die, and further.  It is the keyboard clicking and it is the Great Nothingness of Grace.  I depend on the Tao to be within and behind everything.

And i call to Her still for her soft fragrant voice to sweeten my day.

With every cycle there is a now.  All the ups, downs, insides, outsides, rollercoaster days are just illusionary “times” of a million “nows”.   Every once in a great while, I am able to sit in that precious moment of timelessness.  The here will change, my chair will change, you will change and i will change. 

But the now will never ever change.  It is that grasping of endlessness, the comfort of here–right here.  Claiming that the Divine is reading this over my shoulder, Her sweet breath whispering Presence at my tender neck.

I take this magic carpet with me today, leaning on Her, watching the bush leaves so still after soft night rain.  The brilliant and exquisite world rests for just this now, here.

My Tao reading this morning talks about devotional practice helping me have a body that is an unshakable monument to spiritual devotion.  That sounds so far off for this tiny piece of protoplasm on a small planet in a mid-sized system on the edge of this galaxy.

I’d like to be unshakable.  Lately I feel like a twisted leaf in a rushing river–and not floating well at all.  I feel torn at the edges and my persistent human brain keeps fighting the flow instead of lying back and enjoying the ride.  There is a warrior inside–sometimes with the notion that it is a “spiritual” warrior–that wants to let others know how “unspiritual” they are being.

The irony is not lost to me.

Today I practice a life of serenity, allowing Her to have Her Way with me.  The Way of the Peaceful Warrior is path of a familiar labyrinth in the deep woods.  The deer of Diana nibble at the edges, and Her rabbit consorts run through the middle gracing my steps.  Frogs belch deep love songs to me from the stream.  With this surrounding me, I am unshakable.

I love going to sacred spaces.  I’m not one for long travel, and my sacred spaces are mostly those glorious spots in nature.  But I have been in cathedrals built over centuries, and stood next to those glimmering areas that have been treasured by humans for eons.  The honor, respect and prayers can be felt through my skin.

What would it be like to approach each day as if I was entering a shrine?  How would I act if a meeting was a gathering of wise women in the temple?  What change would come over my attitude if I was stepping onto an ancient holy hillside instead of walking to my office building?

There is something to practice today.  I am a priestess in my morning meditative walk to light the candles in Her Temple.  The world around me shimmers with Her Presence and Grace.

Today the sun shines–even if beyond the clouds.  Today our part of the glorious earth is warmed by Her rays of light.  Every plant on the globe knows this; all the animals are clear of the height of the season.  Here a tiny human bows in deep respect.

Cycles within cycles within circles within seasons we dance.  A labyrinth path with a safe solitary trail into the heart of the matter and then out again to the twirl of human life.  We go round and round, turn and turn until we come ’round right.

I let my body completely dive into the brilliance and symphony of nature today.  I allow all humans to be restless, wanting and shaking and trembling to run through the fields and forest with the celebration that surrounds us.

We praise the sun, we raise the sun, in the name of Light and Love.

At each change of the season, I lay out a yarn labyrinth atop a soft open hill field near here.  It offers a wide promontory point view of a lake, hills and, when it is clear, a range of mountains and a volcanic magnificent cone of a summit to the south.  Tahoma.

I go out early and cherish the time watching the sun change night into day, birds chatter furiously as if to their surprise, they are alive and glorious once again.  The dark shadows slowly turn into green and the gray lake begins to sparkle.

Today I carry that view of miles of splendor in my heart as I have conversations that need me to take the high road.  I will sit anchored on that open field and not be pulled into the ravine beside old dirt roads.  I will admit my failures, and move on to the lessons learned.  One of which is to stay seated on the easy brilliant soft persevering and humble grass.

I am now and always am completely at one with the essence and beauty of Gaia, from whence I was born and to whom I dive through the years to cocoon.