Here are some more photos from the spot where I do the 15 minute meditations, or commune, or whatever you'd like to call it. These pictures were taken yesterday in the later afternoon, so the quality of light is different, very sun dappled.
Yesterday during commune time I gave a loaf of bread as an offering. I left it at the base of the tree where I sit. Oddly, I'm not sure yet who the offering was for. This is all new to me. It just felt right, so I did it. I was excited to give something back. I want to give more back. Do more.
The day before, I skipped commune time altogether in order to give blood, which is its own type of giving back. I have one of the very useful blood types, like one of the O's or something, so the people at the blood and platelets center call regularly and remind me that my blood saves babies and emergency victims or something...
On my way to the blood donation center, I practiced walking meditation. This is something I haven't done in a while. I'd forgotten the method and I was out of practice, but like other forms of meditation, you can't focus on doing it "right". Basically, as you walk, you breath in and out, recognizing your breath, saying thanks to yourself, and focusing on the details of the world around you. The smells, sights.
The link I provided is an article by my man, Thich Nhat Hanh. In it, he advises to focus on the words "I have arrived" and "I am home" as you walk. This turns walking into something you do not to get somewhere, but just another way to live in the moment. Breath in, breath out. I like this line from his article:
"If you want to meet the Buddha, if you want to touch God, if you want to touch the ultimate dimension, that is the address: the here and the now. It is very special."
The bread I gave for the offering was gone yesterday. I looked at the ants crawling up and down my favorite tree and asked them, "did you do that?"... One of the ants crawled up my foot.
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