Part of a series of messages sent to our 30-Day Meditation Challenge group. Today is Day 4, June 4.
A busy Monday, our first since the challenge began. It was also a gloomy, rainy, tempestuous day, one marked by upsets and challenges for many of the people I talked to. I hope you were able to make time for yourself, and your practice, today.
Personally, my workday began at 8:00 a.m. and is just now wrapping up--9:53 p.m. And that's not counting a rehearsal that I really should squeeze in before finally sitting down to dinner! Do I feel like meditating? Well....er....actually, I do. (I've surprised myself, but I'm really looking forward to sitting tonight). But I would do it even if I didn't feel like it. I don't feel like paying the bills a lot of the time, but I've learned to make myself do it. Or, perhaps a better example, I don't always like rehearsing--but I feel much, much better when I've done it. Even if the rehearsal was grueling, painful, and boring.
That's the strange truth about meditation: it doesn't always feel good. Yet, somehow, it always...feels good. At least in retrospect!
Here is today's inspiration:
"Although meditation may seem like a practice that turns away from the world, it is not a way to avoid problems or difficulty. We meditate partly to have the strength to confront the challenges in our life and world. As you allow your meditation practice to grow, it naturally opens the heart and helps you to connect, feel, and care more deeply for the natural world. With practice, you can allow your own deepening awareness of your interconnectedness with all life to inform how you take action to protect the things you love and hold dear."
--from Awake in the Wild: Mindfulness in Nature as a Path of Self-Discovery, by Mark Coleman, 2006. (Though I found it in the March 2007 issue of Shambhala Sun).
Talk to you tomorrow!
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