A Nature Meditation from Cassie
For today’s meditation I’d like you to go outside, in the midst of green plants, as far away from concrete as you can realistically and safely get.
Let’s start by closing our eyes and taking a deep breath. Connect to your body through your breath- be present with yourself in your body.
Feel your breath filling your lungs and animating your body. Feel your cells come alive as the oxygen finds its way to every part of you.
Keep breathing at a slow pace that is comfortable for you.
Now turn your attention outward. What sounds do you hear? Try not to analyze the sounds, just notice, observe and accept them for what they are.
Keep those nice, slow breaths going. Open your eyes. Look around you. What do you see? Again, try not to analyze, just observe.Now, while continuing to take slow breaths, bring your awareness to where the oxygen you breathe is coming from. It is outside of us, before our lungs take it into our bodies. Think about what those oxygen molecules have touched before they made their way to you.
Take notice of the fact that with every breath you take, you are inhaling molecules that have been touched by the earth since the first plants grew out of the ground, air that has been processed by the trees or plants around you, inhaled and exhaled by species of all kinds, shared by all living things on this earth that we all inhabit together. Feel the connection of your breath to the earth and all living things, both ancient and new.
One more minute of nice, slow breathing.
May we find time this week to grow in awe of our connectedness with and to the living earth around us, and the Spirit that dwells within and among us all. Amen.