To Live in a Body - A Meditation

To Live in a Body

I slept in a cave, suspended in the air,
woke with snow dusted over me,
my chest warm, my hands cold,
flakes on my face, my breath like a ghost -
like being buried and rising from the earth
I entered the world today aware of my body

Bodies like islands
Islands like dreams
Dreams like ideas
Ideas like seeds
Seeds like sleep
Sleep like snow
Snow like soil
Soil like growth
Growth like time
Time like oceans
Oceans like seeds
Seeds like ideas
Ideas like dreams
Dreams like islands
Islands like bodies

What is the quality and experience of your body today?
Is it tired, achy, aged, made new?
Do you yearn to walk on and on and on
Does your body crave to sit still
Does your body feel connected with where you are 
Are you hurt? Suffering? Feeling damaged?
Are you in love? Does your body burst with joy? 
Are you quietly content?

Experience what it is to be in your body right now

Then picture your spirit, hovering above your body
looking at the vessel in which it lives
see that it is a human body, born and 
deserving of love, unique among bodies,
yet not so different from all the others
forgive your body
send kindness to your body
offer gifts, prayers, thanks to your body

Give a true breath to your body, and envision every cell
illuminated with energy

We travel this world in a strange way
we are spirit and matter
flesh and sentience
alone yet journeying with others

May you offer your body the truest experience of love you can today
and may you offer other bodies the space and freedom to do the same