Week in the Life :: Day Five

Day Five was Wednesday. Wednesday is my day for guiding meditation, and I don't think I've missed a day. I'm working on some writings on meditation in the Christian tradition, which I hope to put out in the not too distant future, to explain more of what we do. There are many different types of meditation that we focus on here, including imagination meditation (often based on events in the life of Jesus), contemplation of nature, movement meditation, art meditation, and repetition of a prayer or scripture. On this day I chose a simple scripture meditation from Psalm 40.

This is our talking stick. We've taken the idea of the talking stick from Rainbow Gatherings, who used the way of indigenous tribes, especially in the Northwest region of North America. A talking stick is used at a talking circle. The circle respects the person with the stick, and only that person may speak. We've used it to reach decisions or hear everyone's point of view, but the main way we use it is in the third part of meditation, when we have a talking circle to hear everyone's experience and thoughts in the meditation. It's a sort of continuation of meditation, hearing from each other.

I was surprised to see that I took so few photos on Wednesday, though perhaps it isn't all that surprising. During the rest of the day, I did a lot of sorting.

And cleaning and bagging toys.

And math manipulatives. I have to say that this is the easiest time that I've ever had, doing a big move. That is not to say that it is not throwing me for a loop, emotionally, or that I handle transition and big change any better, but I have been very careful about not letting clutter build up. It's showing now, in the moment that I need to move everything. 

And somehow, the last photo I took was of lunch. Meditation, sorting toys, food. It's enough, I guess, to show a little of Wednesday. (That's dal, aloo matar (potatoes and peas) and rice and chapati. Yum.)