This morning, my nature meditation took a new turn. In contrast to yesterday’s meditation which gave me an expanded awareness (see yesterday’s post), I was drawn to notice small and momentary details. Each small detail was what I would call “ensouled.” I found that my heart was in each tiny detail that I perceived. Often there is a tendency to associate details with coldness of heart. This was a whole new world revealing itself to me. I have a tendency to be drawn to the larger picture, the sweeping nature of things. Yet here I was given the experience of seeing details from the heart.

The flash of sunrise on a UPS truck, a duet between chickadees, the needles shed by our Christmas tree in the snow bank along the front walk (revealed as the snow melts). These were some of the ensouled details contained within the five minute meditation of seeing with the eyes of the Heart.

It makes me think of Natalie Goldberg’s oft-repeated injunction regarding writing practice: “Caress the divine details.”

http://www.nataliegoldberg.com/

I also think of the fairy tale of Red Riding Hood. Remember what the wolf-disguised-as-Granny says? “Grandmother, what big eyes you have!” “All the better to SEE you!” The result of this totally sensory seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting? We all know what happened to Little Red Riding Hood!

She was cut out of the wolf by the huntsman, though. I used to be afraid to really look, because of the wolf! The huntsman has appeared! I am climbing out of the belly of the wolf.

“Travelers, there is no path, paths are made by walking.”

— Antonio Machado

I am partway through the 4th drawing and I am reminded of the truth of this statement. It would be easy to do something just to finish it with something “canned”. But I must allow it to grow organically– and also not worry about rough edges.

My morning nature meditation made me aware of how normally the boundaries of my awareness  coincide with the immediate space my physical body inhabits. I react to the space I am in at the moment– the people, the temperature, a stumble on the stairs.

This thought came to me because the dawn nature meditation created an experience in me of  an expansion of being. The flatness of the light of the cloudy morning left me less riveted to details and I was invited to be aware of a much larger space. I recalled Mr. Bennett’s meditation on air– something that has become part of me.

http://www.gurdjieff.org/bennett.htm

When I went inside to meditate in the meditation room, I found that I could “go” to the far cliffs of the Turnagain Arm that I had drawn yesterday. Yesterday when I was drawing they seemed so tiny. Yet, sitting for meditation with the awareness of an expanded periphery,  I found that I could “be” there at those cliffs.

Of course, this is what storytellers do all the time– they go to places in their minds when they tell stories. Somehow this experience may help me to continue with my drawing and allow it to “speak.”