THE WIND & THE TIDES & HER ENDLESS BEAUTY

Daily Meditation, Inspirations, and Practices for Authentic Relationships, July 23

• Today’s questions: Do you feel the invitation to take risks? Do you know your limits, your capacities? Do you trust yourself?

• Today's suggested practice: Day 22 of this month's practice, to practice for yourself, your wants, the things you yearn for (see Kendra Cunov’s short “Notes Towards Self Practice” below)

• My practice: A rare thing, my practice today was to allow myself to sleep through the night, waking after 8+ glorious hours. I will meditate in the woods when I walk the dogs this afternoon…

• My vulnerability practice: …

Hans Peter Meyer

VIDEO SHORT

TODAY’S MEDITATION

How far will we go to try to control that which we would do better to revere, to bow before, to worship?

I wrote that yesterday, as I looked at the wind being unruly, and considered the options for sailing. But today I wonder about this gout thing that’s hobbled me for a couple of days: How much do I resent this particular thing that I can’t seem to have absolute control over? How do I turn that into a moment of gratitude rather than resentment?

Back to sailing: I am a fair-weather sailor. I bow before Her winds, Her tides, Her unfathomable mystery.

Agamemnon famously sacrificed Ipheginia, his daughter to stir the winds that would bring the Greeks to the slaughterhouse that was the Trojan War. The winds changed. Heroes were made. A city and thousands, ruined. Our —masculine— need to control and conquer is rarely a pretty thing. Maybe it never is.

I have lost a loved one to the sea. I felt Her power, surging through my sailboat. I’ve felt also the whiteness of my knuckles as I’ve steered with Her graces. With, not against, and still the whiteness.

I think we too easily believe that we can make deals. That we can propitiate the gods. Or our own insatiable wills, our arrogance and hubris.

She will not abide exchanges, the chicanery of the marketplace or the altar. Agememnon did not long survive Ipheginia’s sacrifice, not long after Troy was razed, her men and boys put to death, her women raped and enslaved.

She will not abide my arrogance. It is all or nothing. Always.

And so I sit, safe in this garden. I watch the wind as She makes the trees to dance and the flowers to shiver, the world to sway. Is it enough to enjoy this, from this safe seat? Here I enjoy her display of beauty and power. Here I am comfortable, not risking myself or others.

In this moment, far from the untrustworthy sea (when is She ever trustworthy? I am stupid to even ask; this is not what She is about, not what She means to me), it is enough to know that there is a tender and subtle glory in knowing Her wild and indomitable powers.

I serve a purpose, knowing myself. Knowing my limits, and the capacities to extend myself beyond those limits. To know when foolishness is the way to wisdom, when it is the way to pain and destruction, even death.

I sit in this garden and, in the presence of Her powerful beauty, I know my limits and my capacities to act as the wise captain: We will not sail today.

I sit and watch Her play. I sit, and withdraw my thoughts of risking the ocean and the winds, holding Her with reverence and awe. I know my purpose, and this is it.

TODAY’S INSPIRATIONS

🌀But they are no substitute for the depth that comes from years of committed spiritual practice and working with teachers and mentors with integrity, who perhaps are spending more time doing their practice than filming it. (Soma Miller)

🌀 The Conscious Warrior practices the cultivation of wonder and awe. (John Wineland, Precept 7)

🌀You are not like that anymore. (My beloved, my Oracle and Siren)

TODAY'S SUGGESTED PRACTICE

Day 22 of this month's practice:

Please read through first, then ...

Today, set a time —at least five minutes, perhaps 15— when you can be alone and in stillness.

• Stand or sit or lie, with a beautiful and straight spine, firm but relaxed, feeling your feet or your sit bones or hips heavy and connected to the earth;

• Close your eyes;

• Inhale deeply into your belly, letting it become soft and round;

• Exhale by gently and slowly, much more slowly than your inhale, pressing your navel to your spine,

• And listen to Kendra Cunov’s few minutes on practice:

When you’re done, stand or sit or lie for another minute and breathe gently, slowly filling and emptying your belly. Here, as you breathe into your fullness, ask yourself: Do you feel the invitation to take risks? Do you know your limits, your capacities? Do you trust yourself?

Notice if your body-mind feels somehow changed. And whether you notice a change or not, be content with yourself, exactly as you are in this moment.

Continue with your day, open to the gifts it brings.

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