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Hints of Gladness: This Feels Like Home
As I walk out the door I’m thinking about a meditation I'm working on about two-way prayer. It's a form of prayer that was practiced by some of the founders of AA. The practice of two-prayer is similar to what I do each day when I go on walks, and what meditation practitioners have done for centuries.
The most common question people get asked who practice this type of prayer, including Bill W., one of the famous founders of AA is, how do you know it’s God speaking to you? I really like Bill W’s answer to this question which was, he doesn’t necessarily know it is God, but he believes that it is coming from the best part of himself and that was the part of him that he wanted to listen to.
Well, I am on the trail now, and I always feel like it’s time to get centered and stop dictating. So here I go…
Hints…
It’s a “nice” morning.
I think I feel like any morning
it doesn’t rain is a nice morning
on the West Coast.
Water droplets hanging off
bare winter branches.
They look like tiny crystals.
The joy of the feeling when
I stop walking and just be.
Knowing I’m not alone.
Contemplatives throughout the ages
have been saying “stop“ and “pause.”
Snow covered mountain peaks
visible across the inlet.
Geese flap their wings in the water
as a warm-up to start their day.
Speaking of starting the day, I feel a little bit of foreboding again. (Like yesterday) I’m going to practice appreciation and loving prayer.
I’m grateful for where I live.
I appreciate where I live.
I appreciate that I can
get dressed and walk out my door
and almost immediately be in nature.
I appreciate these times in nature.
It’s like starting the morning with a loving hug.
It grounds me.
The sights and sounds,
and the feelings are all
hints of being the beloved.
I appreciate the people that I meet
on the trail and those
who have become friends.
I appreciate the change of seasons
and the interest
and intrigue that creates.
I appreciate all of the wildlife that hangs out
at the end of this Inlet.
The ducks, the geese, eagles,
herons, seagulls, seals, bears, bobcats,
deer, salmon, songbirds, robins, chickadees, hummingbirds, and all the animals and birds that I don’t know the names of.
Almost every day I have the feeling
that I would like to stay outside all day.
Maybe, I don’t want to go home
because being out here feels like home.
Don’t we long for that a little bit?
