This is a poem I wrote inspired from I Am Meditations by Gracemarie Cirino
When I was younger
I loved to swim
Under water holding
My breath and reaching
Outwards with my arms
Pulling the water
Towards me as I frogged
My legs and glided
Through the water.
That’s how I feel when
I’m sitting in silence
Looking for a strand
Of thought to
Describe the comfort
I feel sitting in silence
Silence is my friend
I visit every day
Always there waiting
To slide its arm
Around my shoulders
To welcome and settle me in.
Some days I am antsy
and impatient knowing
it’s just 15 minutes
To get through
Other days I am floating
In nothingness for what feels
Like one minute
and has been 15.
The knowing of
Nothingness is fullness
Dreaming is focusing
In gratitude
In kindness
I am silence.
“I AM SILENCE”
“It speaks
Sometimes loudly
But always truthfully
What I hear
In the silence
Of my heart
Tells me
Who I really am
Tells me where to go
Tells me what is
Nourishment
And
What is poison
Helps me to
Tip-toe
Into the unknown
I am silence”
Participants’ Reflections:
I like the idea of silence as a friend. I have a full house, husband and two boys. I need a girlfriend, a best friend. I am accepting silence as my new best friend. It feels good.
I liked the idea of a strand or string. I fly kites, small ones and really big ones. I like the feeling of surrendering to the wind, while holding a magical thread. This morning as part of my collage card ritual, I picked a seal card. I was reminded of a time when I was flying a kite and the string broke and the kite fell into the ocean. I went to retrieve it and a seal came up to me and we shared the moment together. It was quite a blessing.
Thank you for sharing that. We all have experienced it now.
This group wouldn't be here without silence. It brought us together. I am hearing phrases, like ‘silence is golden’, and ‘be still and know that I am god.” We are all parts of god. During the meditation, I thought of ballerinas on tiptoes. This is a good approach for us as we age. Tiptoe into next stages of life, not rush into it. I thought of a song “On Jordan's stormy banks” when you say “see you on the other side” at the beginning of the meditation. This space engenders the memory of song.
I love the fullness of silence. I am aware of my heartbeat. During the meditation, I thought of giving hearts, hearts that give out more and more. It is special to know people who are that.
During the meditation and in the silence, I broke through an energetic blockage in my feet. I have tried the western medicine route and I’ve been focusing on the eastern approach towards healing. I can feel the change. Nothingness is fullness.
I heard something bad before the meditation started. During the meditation, I felt compelled to start writing. I’ve always known that I am a vessel holding the emotions of people around me. I have constant digestive responses to the emotions, even in elementary school. As I was writing, I realized I am holding the pain in my body. And that if I am holding it, I can release it. This was the first time I am outside the experience of holding this pain. I wrote about how we can breathe out the pain and transform it. We aren't ignoring or discounting the pain, but remedying it by replacing it with love.
I too have thought of myself as a sin-eater. There is an Aztec Goddess named Tlazolteotl who was the “dirt-eater.” She transforms sin into good. Your burping is all good; you are not digesting it, but taking it in and transforming it. Women do this, have done it for millennia.
It’s okay to believe in goddesses. They are powerful.
And they work through us