Meditation
As many of you may know, I have consciously experienced a deep spiritual journey for twenty-three years. This blog (Lake Superior Spirit) and the outdoor blog (Opening the door, walking outside) may have been the first blogs I have ever written where I did not overtly talk about spiritual matters. This blog was created as a simple sharing of “what is” in a single personal life. As the years pass, I want more to live and teach and share spirituality through presence and sharing, rather than talking about it. The worlds of physical living and spiritual living have slowly merged together so there seems very little difference.
Having said that, I have felt a calling to deepen in my spiritual practice during the last year. Even though deepening into awareness and presence and compassion has blossomed very much in the previous twenty-three years…it feels like this is the moment to truly commit even deeper.
Walking to school in spring mountain snow
To those of us who feel a deep spiritual life, we are often called to different practices and paths. Perhaps we’re called to the church or synagogue, to Native American ceremony, to meditation. Perhaps we’re inspired by different practices at different times. Some of us need to deepen more in one area; others need perhaps to experience different practices. Perhaps prayer opens some of us. Perhaps Jesus is our way. Or Buddha. Or White Buffalo Calf Woman. Or Allah.
Each path has strengths and weaknesses. But each path also has the potential to lead us into deeper communion with the Divine, with God, with the Infinite, with whatever name we want to call the transcendent. Each path can narrow us into fundamentalism or open us toward merging with something larger than our small selves.
Tricycle in snow
For the past seven years, I have been practicing meditation. Sometimes intensely; sometimes haphazardly. It is not a religion. It is a technique which quiets the mind and can lead to deep self-realization.
One of the prime reasons for this California trip was a visit to my friend, Cheyenne, in Lake Tahoe. We met through a spiritual community called Gaia.com (now closed). Soon after we began emailing and chatting, we talked on the telephone. Over the past year we have developed a mutual respect and deep friendship. She is an incredible meditation teacher with great understanding, compassion, realization and joy. She lives here near the lake with her husband and five children.
Beautiful Lake Tahoe through the evergreens
Because we are spending so much time in meditation and spiritual conversation, I may have little time to post again before returning home. (But then again…who knows? I didn’t expect to find any time to post a blog today!)
Just wanted to let you all know that I am still having the most amazing time in the world on this trip. Yesterday, on the bus, which–believe it or not– had free wi-fi, I enjoyed a half hour writing a little story about the bus rides up through California. It is called Almost to Donner Pass and you can read it by clicking on Simply Here.
Wishing you all realization and homecoming on your own spiritual journeys. Blessings!
Lake Superior Spirit 
Because we are spending so much time in meditation and spiritual conversation.
I really like this statement and truly seek this myself in many ways…..
Thanks for your insightful observations and pictures. The journey is worth it.
Kim
Kim, the journey is SO worth it! I love the deep interior journeys as much as the external ones, don’t you?
Yes
My challenge is to enjoy the external journeys the same way I enjoy the internal ones. Unfortunately I spend, unconciously, too muchh time or at least I believe internally. I also seem to be too kind for my own good and seek peace rather than small amounts of conflict or standing up for myself….
I am a work oin progress. I would rgard this as part of the journey.
Kim
My son was in Lake Tahoe with his family during the winter Olympics in Vancouver. They did a house trade and had a marvelous time.
I like that you are visiting Cheyenne – say “hello” from me. I like too that you give us a bridge into your spiritual practices through your everyday post. There is a sense of wholeness or completeness – a kind of settling that came over me reading your post today.
Thank you for being you Kathy:)
Terrill, it felt good to write this post and share a bit more completely about some of the spiritual practices. I’ll bet your son and his family loved it here. It is so beautiful. Cheyenne said hello to you too! (It’s good to meet gaia family in many places…maybe someday we will meet too…)
Beautiful Kathy. I mentioned in my New Years post about wanting to deepen my spiritual level. I have to be honest and say that meditation has not gone as well as planned, but when I do it makes quite a difference in my center of being. Hopefully that makes sense. 🙂
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and I am glad you had such a wonderful time.
Jessica
Jessica, I am feeling much more committed to a focused meditation practice now. It DOES make such a difference. I find that sometimes during meditation when the thoughts are going like crazy and you think you’re not “succeeding” that you can actually make more progress than the times you sit in absolute silence and stillness.
What a lovely post. Each and every year I commit to deepening my spirituality and exploring new ways to do that. I love that you admit to sometimes being haphazard in meditation – me too. Yet, it is when I am consistent and disciplined that I find something so freeing. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Tammy! Yes, the consistency and discipline gives an added dimension…it’s like the entire day gets flavored with the essence of awareness, or something. I am glad this resonated with you and that you are committed to deepening your own spirituality.
This was such an interesting post.
Like Tammy, I do the same at every start of the year: I consciously resolve to be more consistent with my spiritual practice and to spend more time and energy meditating, being in the present, exercising and reading thought-provoking books than watching DVDs and faffing about on the internet.
But before I know it, I get distracted by work or friends or family or other commitments and the unpredictability of daily living, and a week will go by without any conscious spiritual practice.
I *know* I feel more energised and centred and whole when I meditate – or when I exercise in a meditative way, or even when I spend time outside in the fresh air, surrounded by nature and animals in a conscious, alert-to-the-moment way. But I still find that I need to reconfirm this decision and commitment every day.
That is why witnessing Kathy’s 365-day blogging commitment was such a wonderful, enlightening and centering (Centria! :-)) experience. Thank you, Kathy, for sharing your thoughts on all this, and for nudging and guiding us gently in this way towards our own path and our own truth. Blessings and hugs from Africa. 🙂
Meditation is indeed nourishing, allowing us space and time to be in touch with our souls and reflect on our life journey.
Peace to you (:
June, it feels like meditation is indeed “food” for the soul. And the peace “passeth all understanding”. Peace to you, as well!
Your words touched my soul and if truth be told, I’ve often coveted that beautiful sense of serenity and spirituality you have always brought to your world…even back when the girls were young, I sensed your journey.
I have felt the nudging to look more deeply lately….thank you, friend, for the extra poke.
Cindy Lou, thank you. Sometimes the journey doesn’t always feel so serene…that is interesting that you feel that in me. The more I connect deeply to the spiritual well, the deeper the peace and well-being feel. Blessings on your own unfolding, dear friend.
Hi Kathy, I’m quite new to your site and really don’t know much about your history but have ended up on your doorstep, so to speak….drawn to your connection with the world around you, to your observations and to the sense of presence that seems to be a part of everything you share and do. I’m sure I would have appreciated your past blogs and your spiritual wisdom but it is the simplicity and the beauty of your daily life, how you live it, the deep sense of presence that is so apparent…this is what has touched my heart. This is what I take with me, into the day, after visiting your pages…the reminder that our daily life is our spiritual practice. That this is the diamond in our pocket!!
With much appreciation,
Colleen
I have always felt the peacefulness of your Journey through your writing. I’m glad your visit is providing you with fulfillment.
Barb, thank you! It was such a wonderful visit…really truly.
What a beautiful place to meditate, a vantage point to reflect on where you’ve been and where you might be going on your spiritual journey…
It was such a beautiful place to meditate, Barbara. I am still blown away by the experience!
Reggie and Colleen, I appreciate your comments so much. Reggie, the outdoor blog did feel like meditation kind of to me–to being present to the outdoors and sharing that here. It meant so much to be witnessed in that. You’ll never know how much I appreciated all of you in your support! Whenever I was challenged about going outside for 365 days in a row–and writing about it–I would remember all of you guys and be dedicated to do it again and again.
Colleen, you too “get it”. What I am trying to describe here. Not just an everyday accounting of what happens in my life–but a sense of presence. A sense of being truly exquisitely present in a life, and trying to share the joy of that. Life IS our spiritual practice!!! Oh thank you, thank you, for realizing that. 🙂
This is very well written and now I really get why I vibe with your blog and writing style so much. It is the freedom of self-realization that makes your words so infectious and present. Thanks so much for sharing the spiritual on your non-spiritual blog. I wish gaia.com was still in existence. Lake Tahoe is a lovely area and your friend Cheyenne sounds truly special. I look forward for some meditative respite around that area later this year!