 Last week I enjoyed a relaxing afternoon tea with my friend, Lynne. Her invitation provided a welcome pause in my journey, and I knew that not only would I receive liquid refreshment, but that a delicious cake would be on offer, too. On this occasion my expectation was rewarded: time to have my cake, and eat it!
Without an invitation, would I have stopped for tea, especially if I was to drink it alone? Would Lynne have made a cake for herself? Perhaps, but so often we find the joy in the pleasure of the company. Taking time for tea can be a way of talking over issues of life with trusted friends, or a complete rest from them. The benefits of taking time are known to us all: employers are requested to honour the pause in concentration that a cuppa brings, resumption being far more productive.
Unfortunately, the benefits of taking tea can be abused, when we reach for the pot as a way to depress or deny our true emotions, or those who we are with. Then, what could have been expressed becomes drowned and repressed by the liquid of sweet suffocation, not the loving cup of kindness.
Restoring body, mind and soul
Why does the resource, time – especially personal time – throw up so many excuses for not accepting its benefits? More inclined to give it to others than ourselves, when we come to finding time for ourselves, we may see it as selfish, whereas, in fact, it is selfless generosity. Choosing to replenish rather than ‘run on empty’ conveys us on a tour of devotion, from which everyone benefits, instead of a tour of duty.
We cannot make time – have you got a factory near you that makes time? It would provide constant employment if there was. As my afternoon tea with Lynne showed, rewards are reaped by taking time, not making time.
Taking time for tea is just one way to restore body, mind and soul; another is meditation. Oh, no! Not that word – meditation: the thought of sitting still, cross-legged, silent, at one with oneself and the world, utterly without thought! Gently now! Erase that thought and vision, if it’s a step too far for you, a world beyond the one you can live in, and take a walk into nature, a park or your garden, make the beds or wash up with serenity. One step at a time, keep it simple: that’s also meditation.
Let’s say it again – meditation – but hold on, I’m not going to proclaim any new, or old, ways to meditate – Cygnus holds an abundance of information on that* – yet I am going to offer a suggestion.
Contemplation and conciliation
Take the word meditation and remove the fifth letter – t – and this leaves us the word mediation, a new word, and possibly a different way of experiencing a process many people find so different.
Taking out the ‘t’ removes thoughts and tricks of the mind, leaving a mediator: one who holds no opinions, holds only a space into which balance can be restored. People have opinions: at best the most balanced and non-judgmental person, however well intentioned, will be at the understanding of their own life’s experience. By going within yourself, you become a mediator of your own journey, an onlooker overseeing your own process of developing recognition, not as a means of escape but of exploration. Meditation for some may seem a risky revelation, whereas self mediation allows you to stand as the unprejudiced observer at your own side. Mediation is the internal and eternal friend who remains as guru and guide, rather than judge or jury.
The heartbeat of harmony
Meditation to contemplate and mediation to conciliate, and they both have a common friend in music. Music is the perfect partner to both, revealing to the soul the heartbeat of harmony, mercy and compassion. The healing effect of music alone is well documented: the resonance of sound extends cordiality and partners the organs of the body into a dance that is the journey to health.
Both silence and speech can become rivals for the rest we seek. Silence can be as deafening as the chattering mind, thoughts twisting reason into treachery, betraying our innermost wisdom, and leaving us as scattered as a field of ripened corn devastated by wind. Speech can drown out the silence, but leave the intelligent wisdom we all possess as submerged cargo, unable to surface in truthful glory. Music can become the bridge between them both. Music engages and dis-engages; it is a language of communication and expression, where words or silence, both potentially beautiful, are in that moment of personal intimacy, on the bridge of unknowing, not needed.
To take time for meditation, mediation, and music, in equal combination, is to know love: all are limitless.
Start with whichever you choose, whichever resonates with you at this time, now, in the present moment. There are no rights or wrongs, best or worst ways of approach or practice, no laws imposed for you to follow, only universal laws to usher you into the arms of eternal peace and freedom.
Keep it simple, invite yourself for a cuppa, take time for ‘t’ – with, it becomes meditation, without, it becomes mediation – and music, the magic to enchant us as we explore the precious mystery across the bridge we know as life.
On that note, and taking time, I’m off to put the kettle on!
With love, the energetic vibration of life,
Mary
*Editor’s note: for a really good book on meditation, see The Miracle of Mindfulness.
Click here to order Mary's recommended item, Crossing the Water CD.
|
Messages from 
