Walking (Silent or Singing) Meditation
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it begins with walking, feet mucked by competing agendas and a wish to speak as part and parcel a rare Cow Parsnip Community sometimes it takes less than a minute Magpie Forest, Rose Creek, Smoot Hill you hitch up your bird wings hoping Linda Russo from Meaning To Go To The Origin In Some Way
At the metal buffalo, there is the choice to descend the trail, past the beehives back to the main building of the Palouse Clearwater Environmental Institute (PCEI) or to continue along the upper trail that winds along prairie grasses, continuing until it reaches the gravel drive by the bus stop further down towards the entrance to PCEI from the main road. The trail is thin and there are several wood plank 'bridges' that are not suitable for wheelchair travel. If you choose to take this trail, consider doing it as a silent walking meditation. What that means is simply that you will walk without talking and, in fact, walk without the expectation of holding onto the words in your own mind. |
Words, ideas, thoughts will obviously come through. But in this walk, just let them come and go. You are not experiencing this walk in order to write about it. You do not have to hold onto anything. Let each footfall bring you a new breath, a sense of your own movement, of the movement of the grasses. Feel the open land here compared to the more enclosed spaces of the earlier parts of the trail. Let your sensory awareness continue to expand to include the sounds of the immediate area as well as the sounds of cars and movement in the adjacent roads of Moscow. Expand your senses as far as they are willing to go. Can you hear space stations traveling above the atmosphere? Let your connection to the earth through your feet be the connection to every single aspect of existence. With each step, let yourself become more fully immersed in the unity of the entire universe. What kind of animal, plant or mineral are you in movement?
This activity is for you. You can write about it in the forum or keep it as your own sacred communion.
If you have young children wanting to do this activity and they are of the age that silence for this period of time is not supportive of their natural inclination to connect through sound, consider making this a singing meditation. Choose a song familiar to your children and have everyone in the group sing it together over and over as you walk the trail. Consider your connection to each other through song as you feel your connection to the earth through your feet. Consider singing this song 'to the earth' and see how your children feel? How do you feel in singing to the earth?
Anyone can make this a singing rather than silent meditation! Follow your natural inclinations. If you would rather sing and walk then by all means do so! Take the trail several times and over several weeks. Perhaps you take it in a different fashion each time. Perhaps you become different animals while you walk. Let this trail communicate its ideas to you and listen to how the trail responds when you communicate your own ideas in return.
ENJOY!!
This activity is for you. You can write about it in the forum or keep it as your own sacred communion.
If you have young children wanting to do this activity and they are of the age that silence for this period of time is not supportive of their natural inclination to connect through sound, consider making this a singing meditation. Choose a song familiar to your children and have everyone in the group sing it together over and over as you walk the trail. Consider your connection to each other through song as you feel your connection to the earth through your feet. Consider singing this song 'to the earth' and see how your children feel? How do you feel in singing to the earth?
Anyone can make this a singing rather than silent meditation! Follow your natural inclinations. If you would rather sing and walk then by all means do so! Take the trail several times and over several weeks. Perhaps you take it in a different fashion each time. Perhaps you become different animals while you walk. Let this trail communicate its ideas to you and listen to how the trail responds when you communicate your own ideas in return.
ENJOY!!
Click here for printable version of instructions: for this Station OR for all Stations.