The Practice of Meditation

This isn’t rocket science, you know –
it’s just sitting with what is,
letting the whole, wild and
impossible conundrum of life
touch me, change me, shake me awake.
This isn’t difficult exactly –
but neither is it easy to
witness sensations and thoughts
without withdrawing, defending,
pretending to be somewhere else.
You’d think simply being present
would be the most natural act
in the world, but in fact it
requires the unwinding of patterns,
the unlearning of thought loops,
the refusal to stay in old grooves.
It’s a practice, this choice to be
still and know what I know
while allowing the ocean of my
unknowing to scour the mind’s
shoreline until awareness is
laid bare and the subtle sound
of breath vies with silence
for my attention.

by Danna Faulds

with details from Polly Castor’s painting, Lengthening Our Days (see here)