This week I returned to my morning meditation practice following a few weeks of being out of my routine. The recent launch of the website that I designed and created for my coaching practice and online classes along with recent travel, had taken me out of my daily practice for the past few weeks.
The return to my routine this week has felt like coming home, coming back to something essential, coming home to myself. I begin my practice at 5:30am with a daily routine of gentle yoga/mindful movement and insight meditation on my screened in back porch. I am filled with wonder when I awaken early enough to attend to nature before the sounds of the city begin to overpower.
At this hour, I can hear the steady hum of insects in the trees, interrupted only intermittently by an occasional car passing by on 16th street. I pause for a moment of gratitude, as I know that within the hour, as the night sky moves to the deep blue of twilight, 16th street will be filled with the noise of cars transporting the people of this city to work or school.
Following my yoga and morning meditation practice, I move into a presence to the dawn and beholding nature practice in which I am deeply attuned to nature and engaged with my five senses until my attention settles on one experience. I bring my full, loving, and attentive presence to the relationship with the subject that has emerged from the communion of subjects.
By the time I arrive into this practice, I can usually see the twilight sky, and as I begin to attend to it, I hear the first birdsong of the morning. My attention always goes to this song. The first bird awakens the others like a gentle ringing of an ancient bell, and then one more, followed by another, followed by several more birds begin their morning song until the neighborhood becomes a symphony of birds bringing in the first light of day.
Following this experience, I turn to the work of several of my favorite photographers and writers for inspiration. As I view images and read pieces of text from some of my favorite books, I write down the words or phrases that resonate most deeply, and I engage in my own mindful writing / writing meditation practice.
Today, as I turned to Greg Geboy’s mystical photographs of the lowcountry accompanied by his poetic narrative by Teresa Bruce in transfer of grace, I was reminded on a cellular level of my soul’s absolute need to work with combining images and text.This morning, I felt drawn to Bruce’s, “The landscape does not overwhelm; it seduces.”
For a moment, I allowed myself to wonder what part of the surrounding landscape would seduce me in the coming days. I feel an overwhelming appreciation for living near the ocean and the long leaf pine forest of the Green Swamp. Phil Cousineau’s The Soul of the World: A Book of Hours serves as a touchstone each morning and throughout the day, a remembering to pause and be in touch with the sacredness of this world.
As I read a quote from Rachel Carson’s work, I am reminded of the beauty and sacred that nature offers us. I am reminded that we as humans save what we love, and I want to continue to create writing and photographs that inspire people to love and engage with nature.
Last, but not least, Terry Tempest Williams’ essay, “The Architecture of a Soul” gracefully puts words to what I feel each time I pick up my favorite channeled whelk shell from the bookshelf or my favorite moonsnail shell from my writing desk. She writes of magical days of her childhood spent with her grandmother, whose hobby was walking along the beach at the ocean, searching for shells. Williams writes, “Each shell is a whorl of creative expression, an architecture of a soul. I can hold Melongena corona to my ear and hear not only the ocean’s voice, but the whisperings of my beloved teacher.” I pause to say a silent prayer of gratitude to my mother, who taught me to deeply engage with nature.
Grateful for another magnificent awakening to the dawn, and grateful to feel fully alive, well, and inspired, I turn toward my creative work of the day.
In what morning meditation practice do you engage to inspire creativity? What practices do you imagine might bring you more alive in the mornings and inspire you? Try writing some ideas in your mindful journaling and mindful writing practices and see what emerges.
Jen Johnson is a mindfulness teacher, coach & therapist teaching mindfulness for healing and creative awakening. Learn more about working with Jen.