Meditation #4 "Inside The Golden Cocoon"

Meditation #4 "Inside The Golden Cocoon"

I am sitting by the ocean, the waves crash against the shore and the sound is so hypnotic, soothing, repetitive, and yet, always new. I imagine that's how life felt inside the warm, all-encompassing liquid medium that held me inside my mother's womb. Today I was pondering how Life is such a liquid medium too. Just a week ago, tears of grief were flowing from my eyes, as I let go of a butterfly and saw her soar on strong wings, far, far away. Today, my heart soars like she did, with gratitude and joy. I simmer in the pure, simple joy of being alive, letting the sun kiss my body and the wind tousle my hair every which way...

Today I want to take your hand and lead you back to that magical time when your life was entwined and completely dependant on the Mother that offered her body as your Home. I wonder what if felt like to BE devoted simply to being, surrendering wholly to the slow unfolding of my existence. To change from a tiny embryo that resembled more a seahorse than a human being unfolding and then feel the structures of my tiny body being perfected, cultivated for specialization, prepared for their unique, specific purpose.

Oh, if we could continue to surrender to life in such a way even when we leave the Golden Cocoon. Today, as I lay by the Mother of all Waters, I let go of the need to be busy, to know what my day will achieve and what I will do and I let my mind take me back to that state of expectation, of being held, without anchor or hoist, just floating, letting processes unfold on their own accord, at their own schedule, maturing into realization of the plan written within my own genetic material. When I was just a tiny baby, was I willing to let physiology melt me,like a caterpillar does before it can be housed inside a Golden Cocoon?

Now, as I meditate about that stage of becoming a completely new creature, whether my time in the womb was short, or tinged with uncertainty, can I renew my surrender to Life in order to grow in Patience and allow time and the wisdom of nature to fully ignite the being I was meant to be; a lovingly created creature growing my wings before flying off into a new life.

With love, 

Lina.

MEDITATION #8 Easing Into the River of our Tears

MEDITATION #8 Easing Into the River of our Tears

I woke up to find a tiny bird who had drowned in our pool today. It was a powerful metaphor for this invitation that I kept postponing to ease into the river of our tears.  We are led to ponder about the tears we shed as babies and the ones we hesitate to allow to flow as adults. I thought it was particularly ironic that the tiny bird I found had died, suffocated by the very element he so thirstily had longed for.

I have also felt drowned in liquid sorrow this past week. There was a death in our community, and though I did not know the young man whose death left so much confusion and pain behind, my written words were called to be part of the healing process and I was humbled to realize I was just being an instrument, helping to clarify the message of hope and love this young man’s life had planted in so many lives. Simultaneously, I was aware of my own daughter’s pain, who happens to be the same age as the young man being mourned, dealing with the challenge of starting a new life on her own. My mother has also been shedding tears of pain and desperation and I have navigated her feelings of helplessness with her. One of my best friends has just embarked upon a new challenge of higher learning and she is expected to write and read proficiently in English, and she feels unfit and incompetent in that respect, and has been brought to tears by her frustration. I was even gifted the opportunity to be my husband’s nurse as he recovered from minor surgery, and though I did not see him shed any tears, I did see him surrender to humility and resignation and allow me to serve him while his body healed.

As babies, we were powerful within our tears. They allowed us to communicate hunger, discomfort, exasperation or plain exhaustion and they were our right, our means to an end, and we used them without hesitation. When did our tears become a source of shame, guilt or embarrassment? Whether we were neglected or tended to, our tears were a powerful means of expression and a blessing, and we can reclaim that meaning for them.

I willingly dove into the river of tears that surrounded me this week. I shed my own. I comforted, shared, listened and let my heart inhabit the healing flow. I dissolved my own fears and pain as I joined others’ sadness and by letting go, I re-discovered the bond of One-ness that bonds us within our shared humanity.

Tears are blessing rain which allow us to evolve and fertilize the blooms of tomorrow. Rites of passage in life often require us to feel the pain today in order to rejoice in the evolution that the next chapter will reveal as the progression unfolds. Jump into the river of your tears without reservation, fear or hesitation. The river of our tears will lead us, eventually, to the ocean of empathy and serenity.

With love,

Lina.

Meditation #2 Every drop of water, every leaf on every tree, every petal of every flower, UNIQUE!

Meditation #2 Every drop of water, every leaf on every tree, every petal of every flower, UNIQUE!

Before I was held in the safety of the womb, I was already contained in the Being of God, whose breath infuses every living thing with purpose. I have been cherished and known forever. 
From the vastness of being encompassed by the massive universality of cosmic powder, we are focusing now on the minu

te, the individual, the tiny pieces of the puzzle that allow the whole to attain its strength and beauty, its complete-ness.
I envision the day before I was a spark of life; combustion created by the fusion of two beings coinciding in intention and relenting to my desire to enter the world. I had been held an cherished for all Eternity in the mind and heart of God.
I am pure presence. What was that pre-existence like?
Did I fervently wish to Be? Where was I? I can see myself as an energy, a light, realizing an imminent, dramatic change. I was required to leave everything I knew, everything I had, and enter a world of complicated strangers, arriving poor, defenseless, tiny and to make matters even worse, naked! Was I ready to come when I was sent? I do not know many of the answers, but if God's plan for the world included my presence in it, I accept the invitation. I am willing to live in the world, fully and intensely, knowing I will be guided, held, and instrumental within the artistry of the design of it all. Just as every drop of water is unique when seen under a microscope, every leaf distinct and every petal on every flower adds to the majesty of its bearer, I too have my individual vitality and my place in the world.
Ponder on your own individuality, imagine your pre-existence and journal and use your creativity as this week unfolds to relive your time as pure potentiality.  

With love, 

Lina.

Meditation #7 The Power of Surrender

Meditation #7 The Power of Surrender

Every time I hold a baby, I fall in love.

I am seduced by that total faith, that surrender to my embrace, the confident grasp that instinctively seeks my fingers and holds on tight, searching into my eyes to absorb my soul through that exchanged gaze and the spell is fully cast by that flicker of light when recognition and the thrill of exploring a human face ignites the connection.

I love the smell of a baby, the feeling of light and love that seems to envelop us both as we cuddle and then the delight when that baby gifts me with a chuckle! I had one such moment this week, and it fed me enough love to last all month, and it allowed me to open the memories of what it mush have felt like to be wrapped within loving arms, looking up and hoping that sturdy embrace meant this big person would know how to decipher me, feed me when I felt hungry, figured out how to relieve my discomfort and cared enough to explore my being and tell me I was loved.

Can we find still find within ourselves that willingness to let go? To trust in others and allow them to grow by being our caregivers, our helpers, our source of love, comfort, laughter, wisdom or simple presence? It is so easy to become trapped in the delusion of being self-sufficient, self-conscious, to believe everybody is watching to see your failures, or your weaknesses or deficiencies, and to refuse to ask for help, reach out for comfort and allow others to be the source of what we need.

In Spanish, we frequently say “me da pena”, the closest translation would be “it embarrases me”, and it frequently is applied to a situation where we will be exposed as vulnerable, lacking, needy or weak. But most often, it just means recognizing we are human and incomplete, and need the skills, the help, the cooperation of a team or maybe just one friend, to help us through and allow us to cross the threshold into realizing that it is in fact empowering and revealing to surrender, to allow another to hold us, feed us, listen to us and perhaps heal us by looking into our eyes and either by laughing along or joining our tears, serving us and opening our hearts once again, making us realize we have never really been alone. From the beginning we have been held, despite our broken, undeserving selves, we have been mended and tended, and this surrender is how we learn to trust not only others, but ourselves, in order to live without fear, and within love.

With love, 

Lina.

The Deeper Wound 9/11

A flood of memories...

9/11 is like a scar on our collective soul. When I sought solace, a book by Deepak Chopra, called "The Deeper Wound" helped me through. I never owned a copy, a dear friend of mine lent me hers. I met Tooba in a playground in Dallas, we poured our souls and shared our personal stories. She was Afghan, had been brought up in a Russian occupied compound and was married to an Iranian who was obsessive about collecting junk in garage sales. I was a Colombian, living in the urban jungle of impersonal, petulant Dallas, and was trying to understand my childhood wounds and the reality of feeling like a square peg in a round hole, our immigrant tales united us and our women's hearts drew us together. She told me about this book and how it had changed her heart. I never saw Tooba after I moved away from Dallas, but "The Deeper Wound" has become a part of my being, thanks to Tooba. That is the enduring power of a book!

I copied the book on my journal, realized the therapeutic power it had and started translating it right away, made copies and have given away at least 25 of them. It is a life-altering book and today, I choose one of my favorite parts to honor those who were sacrificed eleven years ago.

"Inside you is a space that NOTHING and NOONE can touch. Your body is like a house that gives shape to this space of peace and silence. When a house falls down, roof and walls tumble, but no harm is done to the space inside. In death we lose our bodily definition, but the inner space of peace is never harmed. Devote some time in your day to go inward and find your peace...It is important to remember that anything you can do to expand your awareness will automatically counter evil. Be gentle when you are tempted to be harsh. Pay attention when you are tempted to turn a blind eye. Accept that the negativity you are feeling belongs to you when you are tempted to blame someone else. Personal transformation on this level is the highest way to combat evil.

Transformation does not come about by being touched with a magic wand. Habit and use apply here, too.

If you find even the smallest reasons for sending out intentions of love, tolerance, forgiveness and peace, these centers will grow inside your mind. Your spirit counts on this growth."

Meditation #6- Being held, loved and cherished... in Mom's hands!

Meditation #6 Being held, loved and cherished...in Mom's hands!

I just finished watching a life-asserting documentary, "Happy", and it gave me the nudge I needed to sit down to ponder about our next stop down this exciting exploration of self. We celebrated our birth this last week, it was all about crossing the threshold into your life. Now we are tiny babies, and we are completely dependent on other's care and attention. In "Happy", even though many different culture's level and paths of attainment of happiness are discussed, when analyzing the most primitive of cultures in Africa, a powerful idea is presented. We learn about total joy and surrender from our Mothers, the first caregivers, who responding, not to "culture or education", as the Dalai Lama points out, they care and tend to us out of compassion, because it is in our nature.

Our first happiness lessons are taught by the self-less acts of their love and attention and they allow us to learn whether the world is a safe place that will respond to our needs, although in some cases, when an infant's necessities are neglected, a crucial tenet of character is weakened.

Macrina Wiederkehr chooses the rainbow as the symbol for this meditation in her book "Behold Your Life". She defines it at a sign of friendship between the Creator and the Created, but then she recalls Rabindranath Tagore's words, where he asserted that every time that a child is born, it comes bearing a message of joy: God is not discouraged, he still has hope and this new child is the proof.

Now, there's a reminder that I wished would flash in neon lights in every corner of every city, where babies are neglected, abused and often discarded as trash. Every child is a Baby Jesus, the vessel of potential for change, hope and redemption. Every child is also a new start, a beginning and a seed for the future. This week, I would like to invite you all to watch "Happy", the documentary, because of the Happiness lessons it refreshes, mentioning meditation specifically as a crucial brain-enhancing practice. Watch and delight in its powerful wisdom, let the message be absorbed by your cells and your bones and renew your contract with your joy, with the rainbow of hope and friendship that lighted your heart when you looked into your mother's eyes. Remember, also, that life holds as many surprises as Mom always had for each one of us, treats and gestures of care and devotion, and that the more happiness you have, the more we all have. =)

With immense love,

Lina.

Self and The Soul- Why Meditations?

CONSCIOUSNESS
AWARENESS
SELF
This morning, I had reviewed my recent writings and I wondered why I had chosen to call them Meditations. I am immersed in a wonderful present I got yesterday, my Birthday is still showering its blessings. This extraordinary gift was a book, given to me by a sister soul, and its title seemed to reveal what I have been feeling lately, as I saw the picture Susi took of m

e, as I traveled all month with the love of my life and as I look at the watch and taking the kids to school and picking them up no longer structures my days: the title that seemed to fit me like a new hat : "The Untethered Soul". As I navigate its wealth, I found an answer to my early morning question:
"When you contemplate the nature of Self, you are meditating. That is why meditation is the highest state. It is the return to the root of your being, the simple awareness of being aware.Once you become conscious of the consciousness itself, you attain a totally different state. You are now aware of who you are. You have become and awakened being. It's really the most natural thing in the world. Here I am. Here I always was. It's like you have been on the couch watching TV, but you were so totally immersed in the show that you forgot where you were. Someone shook you, and now you are back to the awareness that you're sitting on the couch watching TV. NOthing else changed. You simply stopped projecting your sense of self onto that particular object of consciousness. You WOKE UP. That is spirituality. That is the nature of self. That is who you are.
...this world ceases to be a problem. It's just something you are watching. It keeps changing, but there is no sense of that being a problem. The more you are willing to just let the world be something you're aware of, the more it will let you be who you are."

The Grand Debut: Meditation #5
I wanted to call the day of being born a magnificent debut because that is precisely how I conceive it. I remember reading a children's book that described for the reader how, when he or she was born, aquatic creatures held their breath to see who had come to join life on earth, the winged beings who fluttered in the air hovered like hummingbirds in awe, and creepers

 and crawlers, trotters and runners, two footed and four, on every corner of every land mass, felt the presence of a new life coming to join their existence on Earth, hoping this was a Builder, a Defender, knowing each new human life had the potential to be a ray of life, of hope and love.
We are each born into homes where our arrival required preparation, nesting and anticipation. The practicalities of our needs were tended, in varying degrees of comfort, and we thrived and grew. Yet, every one of us carried within the desire to create, to be something specific and unique in the world, a sacred seed of potential. Perhaps the environment in which we were brought up fed our physical growth, but not always tended to the longing and need for meaning that our souls longed for. The tide of urgency ebbs and flows, but we can all recognize the thrust of a dream, an intense desire, a calling.
When we were born, this drive of spirit was intact, housed within our hearts, postponed until our bodies, minds and souls evolved. Life in its twisted paths and labyrinths distracts us so efficiently that we often forget, some of us willfully choose to ignore, those flickers of passion.
Today we are reborn, and we will release our hearts, let them soar on fluttering wings in order to remind us what it is that was planted within, a desire for transcendence, a beacon of light that does not doubt, fear or withdraw. We are also summoned to be each other's midwives, and accompany and encourage the re-birth of confidence, of faith, of belief, desire and joy, all that is needed is love.
Celebrate your birth this week, have a party if possible, balloons, cake and guests would be great, and renew your contract with life, commit to live like you mean it, and hold on to the wonder and enthusiasm in a baby's eyes. You are a dazzling star on a Grand Debut!