I think I'm a pretty logical person. Whenever I reflect on my childhood and early years, I try to understand what happened and figure out why I reacted the way I did. One example that comes to mind is an exercise from a book on sparking creativity (The Artist's Way), which at one point asks the reader to write down negative comments received during childhood and to respond to them...
This kind of reflection has helped me get rid of some of the "baggage" that has burdened me over the years...
Recently a book I'm reading encouraged me to do a different kind of meditation. It took my mind on a different kind of journey of discovery - not as logic-based, but also interesting...
It comes from the book, The Artist's Rule by Christine Valters Paintner, page 76. This is the meditation:
Place your hand on your heart to make a physical connection...
Begin to imagine back through time to the moment you were first created, shaped, and molded. Imagine that in this first moment of emerging from God's creative energies God blesses you with gifts for the world. You are bestowed with gifts that only you can give in your unique way, and your call in this life is to give them freely. Take a moment to notice the images that come to mind. What are the gifts God imprinted on your heart from the very beginning? Focus on these gifts, allowing images, feelings, and memories to rise up. Simply be present for them without trying to figure anything out. Rest for a while in this experience. Then in your imagination, allow for an energetic connection from your heart to your hands as a symbol of extending your gifts to the world. Hold your hands out and picture them as the way your heart meets the sacred presence in the world around you.
The first time I read the meditation, I was immobilized... I have long believed that every person on earth contributes to making the world into the place it is. We are all different and the world needs all of us. But to think about the specific gifts God has given each one of us and thinking about how we can give them away to the betterment of the world was not easy for me.
It took me a second reading to actually get through the exercise... and I plan to do it again, as I feel I've only skimmed the surface...
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