Just when I think the world has stabilized, it seems another disaster occurs…Texas, Florida, Mexico, South Asia, Puerto Rico. These are only some of the weather related problems.
Rev. Warren Lynn has written a beautiful meditation to be used at this time during a walk. Please feel free to print the entire meditation and hand it out to fellow walkers when you open your labyrinth for Global Healing. I hope you have an opportunity to do that soon. Thank you, Warren, for your healing words
We want to help, relieve suffering, provide relief. And we search for ways to do that.
One of our tasks is to offer a place for others to find peace among the chaos. A labyrinth walk can do that, as we all know.
Peace & Healing,
Ellen Bintz Meuch
Click here for a PDF of this meditation
Meditation for mindful response
To a world in such great need
Chaos surrounds me
But chaos moves within, too
Turmoil and disaster undoes the world beyond my world
But turmoil and calamity keep knotting up my own experience
So, let me first begin, here; with me.
Within my own life, let me begin untying knots
To free myself up so I can begin to address the chaos elsewhere
One breath at a time
One step at a time
I begin with me
But not only for me
But so I can turn
And offer the world my best self
My complete self
A healing and whole self
For the sake of greater need
beyond what even I know.
And so I begin,
By just breathing
Naturally,
Slowly
Relaxed
Breathing in,
I feed my spirit
Breathing out,
I cleanse my soul
Breathing in,
I receive the gift of life
Breathing out,
I relinquish distraction and suffering
Breathing in,
I accept new possibility and opportunity,
Breathing out,
I release doubt and skepticism
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
When I am ready,
When the time feels right for me,
I begin to walk
One step at a time.
One foot
Then the other
Slowly moving upon the path
Walking and breathing
Receiving what I and the world needs
Letting go that which keeps the world and I from knowing recovery and wholeness once more.
Breathing in, Breathing out
One foot, then the other.
There are great undoings around us.
Around me.
But there is me.
I am not able to do all things
But I am able to do respond to some things
Amazing things
I am full of generous potential;
Capable of lavish possibility.
And I am part of connected sacred communities
Who can act together
in ways beyond my own holy goodness
but who may need my inspiration, leadership, and example.
And so, I walk on.
One step, one breath, at a time.
One after the other
Listening for my place
in a mindful response to a world in such great need.
Until I reach the center,
Where I lay down all remaining burdens
That might keep me from attending as fully as possible
To a world in such great need.
With life now unburdened
Standing in centeredness
I open my life wide
Considering the fullness yet inside me
Exactly because I have finally emptied myself.
I am now ready to give
Ready to respond
Ready to realize my place in the reaching out
To those whose lives have been undone by greater forces.
To the human and more-than-human world standing in flood waters
I proclaim myself as a place of refuge
To those torn asunder by winds I can barely imagine
I declare my life a resource for renewal and rebuilding
To lives undone by the violence of hate and bigotry
I stand ready to enfold them with arms of loving acceptance and care
I may be only one
But I am one
And I am part of
Communities of healing wholeness
And I will not turn my back
On a divine calling
To share myself
With those who do not have such
Still, I do not forget
To breathe and walk
One breath, one step
At a time.
When I am ready
I move from the center
To head down the path
Back toward the entrance
Into the wider world
I use this time
on my way back into the world
to consider practical options.
Upon leaving the labyrinth
How will I respond?
How will I behave?
How will I act?
Where will I use my time?
Where will I share my resources?
To what organizations will I send my money?
Because I am a holy human creature
Full of exactly what is needed
for this world in such great need.
I can do this.
I will do this.
And such a response
as is given to me in this time
is a gift
whose joy can only be known fully
if I say, “yes!” and move forward in action.
Amen.
