The Wind Across the River Shannon - A Meditation

You may know from reading my profile or my book that I have a chanting - meditation practice. Most of the time my meditation occurs in the middle-of-the-night. I will often wake up between 2:00 and 4:00 am, sit up in bed and begin to chant. I take time to give gratitude, ask for clarity, and when my mind is done chattering, I then move into a deep stillness. Often it is from this very quiet place that a new idea will arise; and when this happens, I turn on the light, grab my pen and journal, and I begin to write what comes into my conciousness.

A few nights ago as I sat quietly meditating, I could hear the wind blowing outside my wind. It was whipping through the trees,shaking the windows, and it got my attention. My apartment complex at the University of Limerick sits on the edge of the River Shannon. It is often windy here so this was nothing new except that I was listening, deeply attending to the wind in a state of openness, and in doing so I heard the wind in a whole new way.

Divine Breath

The wind is the breath of the Divine
singing through the trees,
whistling through fields of tall grasses,
sending ripples across the surface of the water,
kisses of love.

The wind is the Divine invisible,
yet present in movement,
strongly nudging us along our paths,
or gently touching our faces
with a silky caress.

The wind is the breath of the Divine
shaking the very core of our being,
so we can wake up and listen to the Stillness,
that place from where the wind arises and returns.

The wind is the breath of the Divine,
the Divine energy manifest
in sound and movement,
animating our lives and
the world in which we live.

This breath is the same breath
that animates each of us;
the sacred breath of life,
that gives rise to voice and song.

Listen to the wind,
then listen to the silences
between the bursts and the gusts,
between in the inhale and the exhale.
It is here that you will find the Divine.