Pausing - on - As Threshold
Photo by Tom Gainor (Unsplash).
To begin, I invite you to join me in a Pause that Refreshes, a.k.a., One Breath Meditation …
Bringing your attention to your breath and letting your body sense the physical support that is effortlessly here for you in this moment, allow yourself to acknowledge and appreciate breathing and being supported by relaxing a bit more into simply being here … letting yourself sense and relax into Earth’s offering to gently hold you with the mysterious force known as gravity … … When you finish reading this sentence, I invite you to close your eyes (or look down) and bring all of your attention and energy to fully experiencing one deep, long breath as you breathe fully in, letting your belly extend and then fully and completely exhale before you effortlessly drop into the natural flow taking another breath … One Breath Meditation, Begin … … … …
… … …
There. … … Here we are.
As I’m typing this – yes, right now, in this very moment – Near Charlottesville, Virginia, the son of one of my best friends is about to enter into his and his beloved’s marriage ceremony. I love that I glanced at the clock and realized that this threshold moment is happening -- I am simultaneously connecting with you as I’m writing this “threshold” blog and also connecting with my life-friends arriving in their threshold. What a miracle Life is! What a miracle it is that we can notice that we live in this miracle! In service of noticing, I invite myself to slow down and pause … and I invite you to join me.
Does it seem to you that time is speeding-up? Speaking for myself, I often feel caught in a fast-moving current of doing and tending; I lose track of time and, suddenly, the day is gone. When someone asks me what I’ve been up-to, my mind is a blur. I have a feeling of well-being, happiness, and purpose, but the specific details momentarily escape me. I know then, that it’s time for a Pause -- to leave a gap, as Pema Chodron suggests, “to get gappy.” That “fast-moving current” is propelled by my putting my attention and energy on “the next thing;” I have the power (and responsibility) to slow it down by bringing my attention to … you got it … this breath, this moment, this now which naturally flows into now … as effortlessly as water into water … being into becoming …
Hmmm … I am changing the title of this blog to Pausing as Threshold.
APPROACHING THE THRESHOLD:
Recently, I have been experiencing multiple opportunities to hold paradox and also to let-go-into multiple synchronicities. Even that statement is a paradox: Life appearing as simultaneous opposites and alignments … Sheesh, you can’t make this stuff up! Just this morning, I heard Charles Eisenstein say in a presentation: “Big changes happen through synchronicity. Synchronicity reveals the underlying order … the result of the prayers of our lives.” We-ell-lllll … there has been a lot of synchronicity in my world of late, often wreaking havoc with the plans I had for the day/month/year or even next hour, and always bearing some sort of pleasant surprise (and, paradoxically, not always a comfortable one).
BEING THE THRESHOLD:
My sense is that there is some very active thresholding happening personally and collectively. My sense is that pausing would be a very wise move.
So, here’s how I am embodying this process of pausing as threshold. I am postponing the course I planned to offer in June. Current programs, courses and practice groups (Being Outdoors, Eye of the Hurricane/Part 1, and Emergent Dialogue) will, naturally, continue. I am availing myself to deep listening through contemplation and guidance. I am bringing particular attention and energy to MBMStudio tending, potentiating, collaborating, and updating. I am being accompanied by you through the Sunday Morning posts on community.montereybaymeditation.com. As I am pausing as threshold, I am opening into a whole new field of emerging … the possibilities are endless.
I am inviting you to join me as I invoke the wisdom of Parker Palmer: “Welcome to the brink of everything. It takes a lifetime to get here, but the stunning view of past, present, and future—and the bracing breeze in your face—make it worth the trip.”
I am pausing as threshold in service of bringing consciousness and compassion into the flow.
All will be revealed (to you and me both) as it unfolds.
Meanwhile, congratulations Gavin and Madeleine … Let the wedding dancing-across-the-threshold begin!
Marianne
