Full Seed Moon

At the Winter Solstice, I started a new experiment. My intention is to meditate twice each day, at sunrise and sunset. I have been wanting to do this for years, but my life and work made it hard to arrange.

But now I have a new life, and I can create a new routine. We'll see how it goes.

Of course, just now, around the Christmas holiday, it has been relatively easy. Getting up for sunrise at 8:20am isn't any hardship. And I haven't been doing anything crucial that was rudely interrupted by meditation time for sunset at 4pm. It will probably get a bit harder as we get to work in the bungalow again, and especially towards Midsummer, when the sun rises very early indeed.

These daily meditations are a crucial part of my new life, though. For the first time since I was a student, I have a very clear purpose. Everything that I do is about creating mutually beneficial connections that will make Westacre into a home of harmony and beauty. Meditating regularly is essential to those new connections.

The meditation I do is essentially mindfulness meditation. I sit, preferably outside and preferably on my blanket on the ground, and note every experience as it passes. My breath, the wind, a thought, bird song, the touch of the earth, cars passing, … I stay present without judgement, allowing myself to really hear and feel my surroundings.

And even after just a few days, I have made some valuable discoveries:

• It's not easy for me to meditate first thing in the morning. It takes me a while to settle and find my ability to concentrate. I am hoping this will improve with time and practice.
• As I seek connection with the soil of Westacre, gently feeling its life and character by extending roots into the ground, I can feel the soil answering me. As I long to become part of this place, so it wishes to become part of me. It is a relationship of equals. As well as reaching out, I need to open my door and let the other in.
• The Westacre soil is sodden wet. It has been raining a lot here, recently, and the lawn squishes as you walk on it. This puts paid to my resolution to get into the garden and start digging up vegetable beds straight away. I would do more harm than good. So next I will ask the spirits of this place and my spirit teachers for ways to connect and co-create with the rain. Because there is more to come.

And so the adventure begins. I will learn to call all of myself to my meditation practice. I will gradually allow my relationship with this land to deepen. And I will find ways to work with the spirits of Earth and Water, for the good of all.

What kind of connection do you have with the place where you live? Have you been able to build a relationship with the local spirits? How did you do that? Do you have any advice for me?

Please comment below.

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