A Meditation of Connection

Everything, everything, is connected.

My words, my moods, my thoughts, ripple out to those around me. My actions, or non-actions, have an affect on myself, on others, on fragile ideas and dreams, my living space, the natural environment.

On a walk with my sister in the Jardín Botanico in San Miguel de Allende, I was struck by this fountain's message, how water from an unseen source bubbled up and into a round stone pool. Softly, with a gentle force that effortlessly rippled out—its soothing burbling and circular expansion was continual, mesmerizing.

The rippling pattern of connection that bubbles up from the unseen source of our awareness, empathy, and caring can change a life and affect situations—our own and that of others—for it is abundant, mysterious, and greater in magnitude than we can ever imagine.

Find your quiet place, and read each line below—slowly, softly. Feel and sense and acknowledge where you disconnect, and where you connect. Read each line again—slowly, softly—and be mindful of what is different this time around. For change often begins from the tiniest alertness, the smallest action, the most subtle shift in perception.

The seemingly disparate threads of each individual life story are profoundly intertwined.

Each individual life is linked to the lives of others.

These lives make up the human community.

The human community is in intricate kinship with the innumerable organisms and systems

of the natural world, our planet, and the immensity beyond.

Pull one thread, anywhere, and the entire woven fabric of experience shimmers and shakes.*

* excerpt from The Book of Calm

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Calming Practice: Garden Peace

Take a walk in a garden.

Pretend you have never seen anything in front of you,

ever smelled such aromas, heard such quiet and tiny murmurings,

or felt sensations like the prick of a thorn or the underside of a leaf.

Repeat. Often.