As I hiked up the path to the Peaceful Valley Chapel, I relished the quiet of my early morning solitude. After many years, the ten-minute hike has become a personal ritual. Each morning of each Journey to Center week, before our breathing and meditation at 7, I go to the top of this small mountain to be inspired by the view of a much higher mountain range in the distance.
I stare at the 14,000-foot peaks, open my arms and breathe, inviting their energy, power, beauty and peace into my being. I contrast their stability and their "just there-ness" with my own approval-seeking energy, their effortless poise with my striving to do the right thing, and their natural and graceful essence with my desire to appear knowledgeable and beautiful and centered.
Could I possibly just BE? Like the mountain?
This thought has turned into a practice. Each time (well, most times) that I find myself in striving or approval-seeking mode, I stop, breathe, and think about the mountain.
Each time I practice, I feel my body come back to a relaxed stance, mind clear, my being at rest. It is as if I have been leaning forward - out of myself - looking for something, someone, to be okay. As I think of the mountain, I come back to center.
Is there a place that helps you return to your own powerful presence, where your needs are met and you're fine just the way you are. Find it now–in your office, your home, your cubicle. Bring your mountain back into view. And have a great journey to center.
Tom Crum is holding his next Journey to Center this September 8-12, in Lyons, Colorado. Consider joining us and finding the mountain within. Good ki!
Judy Ringer
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