The contemplative practices from week 8 and 9 were both wonderful exercises in meditation. I have enjoyed imagining my “roots” extending into the earth, and the nurturing of earth and water on my body as it joins with the ecology underground. This kind of meditation is not new to me, as one summer I happened upon a huge tree stump that must have been cut several seasons before. I stood on top of the stump, closed my eyes, and imagined what it must have been like to be that tree. I imagined my body joining with the roots in the soil, and I imagined the last hundred years passing by, day and night, from the perspective of that one particular spot on earth. A hundred years of not moving, but having life move around myself instead, as I remain rooted to the earth.
These meditations were wonderful, and they brought me back to that memory of considering the life of a tree.
Image: http://www.stevennoble.com/v/Animals-Nature/Oak-Tree-Roots.jpg.html