Why Meditate?
It was a day in June of 2014. I had been half way through my shift at the local teaching hospital when Mel, the unit clerk called to me "there is an emergency at home… Julie wants to talk to me”.
Now let me tell ya Mel had takin’ a softness to me, in a motherly sort of way. Since the time I failed to show up for work the morning after a St. Patrick’s Day before. She had said to me a time previous “sure it’s the biggest day of the year for you Irish?
I protested "i'm the new generation of Irish, more self confident, less takin’ to the drink”. So when me not showin’ up for work that following March morning of the 17th the day before... It was safe to say I had not lived it down since.
Mel had now been known for playing tricks on me since so when her alarms of a domestic emergency rose I would be forgiven for not takin’ her seriously. The scene heightened with her words of “I’m serious David you need to call Julie”. With that I realised Julie was not one to call me at work… time stopped for a moment. Julie answered.
"David I have done the foresakable.. "
“what?" says I.
Julie had dedicated her days to the raring of our youngest child while I taking the traditional role outside the home. My mind raced some more…
“ i did what every mother had preached down to the following generation not to do… " says she.
I could not bare the tension anymore…
"just tell me" says I .
“I went down the slide with Patrick between my legs and he only went and got his ankle caught between mine … he’s in a state.. he’s not even walking on it”.
I quickly rescheduled the rest of my day and headed for the basement suite apartment we resided. Things had settled a little in the 10 minutes it took me to get home. Patrick and Julie were doing what they do best the young fella snuggled up in his mothers arms listening to tales of Betrix potter sucking on an ice pop. He would not even let me let me look at his ankle no mind touch it. I did my due diligence and cleared his knee and hip of any issue and ushered both to the local x-ray center where he was cleared of any bony injury. Now you are wondering what in the name of sweet heavens has this got anything to do with meditation. And sure I’m beginning to wonder the same myself, but anyways Patrick for the next 13 days reverted to crawling around on his knees. For anyone who knows the youngfella his spirit is encapsulated in how he moves and vice versa. For him to revert to a more primitive form of movement for a such a length of time is a big deal. I watched him for those days, studied him, his movement, his appearance, his mood, his Joie de Vie and nothing else had changed. He was as content as ever and carried out his tasks, play and desires through all fours completely avoiding any weight through his injured side.
I had my moments, as I thought did the xray miss something, surely, he should be at least trying to walk on it by now. I mean he was 2 old years at the time and had been walking since he was 8 months, enough time to in the least attempt a hobble. Then on the 14th Day he spontaneously jumped up on his two legs and took off up the garden in a manner an agile 2 year old boy would, no sign or word of an injury. I studied some more.
You see Patrick at 2 years lacked the social pressure and conditioning and was able to innately move by the needs of his body in a way to best see through the full healing and integration of his body. In essence he was in trust of his innate healing ability. To heal himself when the right environment is provided, a good book, an Ice pop and all fours. All Unbeknownst to him. You see Mediation is a lot like that. Painful at times especially the beginning, but once you stick with it something comes through, something you can’t quite put into words when explaining it to another… enough that it encourages you to keep going but at the same time brings up a thousand excuses of why not to... “I can’t do it you may hear yourself say… or sit in quite 45 minutes! ..Are you mad”. This is the first hurdle and it is a good place to be. Then with time and practice, these periods of insight become a little clearer and more frequent until it becomes quite undeniable that something miraculous is happening. Something miraculous and yet something very simple, a remembering occurs, a remembering of something very familiar to you, a warm feeling inside of a time gone past long ago but all happening at once. That part of you that is lessened of the grips of social pressure and conditioning. That part of you that knows the next time you hurt your ankle you will roll up in a cuddle puddle, eat ice cream and move around on all fours like the “soft animal” that you are.
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