Meditation for Teth

Meditation for Teth

Relax and get comfortable, close your eyes, and imagine yourself in your comfy chair. Feel the soft cushions at your back. Hear the crackle of the hearth. Smell the aroma of your favorite morning beverage. Have a taste and breathe deeply. You are in the little home of your own making. Certainly, a work in progress, down right cubist in design but you are not finished. You will fill it with all the trappings of your personality. It will be grand.

Today might be a good day to take a look at the area in which you decided to build. You get up, pick up your cup, and walk to the window. It’s such a beautiful day. Nine yellow butterflies dance on the breeze and beckon you to join them. You head for the door and out to the porch. The birds are singing a sweet song today and the grass smells fresh with dew. There is another sound in the distance as well, a low rumble, like a growl, but very faint. This calls for an investigation. You put your cup down on the table by the rocking chair, pick up your traveling bag, and step off the porch.

To the North there’s a trail leading into the woods. As you follow the trail you scour the brush looking for what might be making that noise. Instead, you come nose to nose with a little green snake. “Oh, hello there” you say to the little green snake, and you are not really as surprised as you should be when it answers “Hello, it is nice to see you outside of your little home. Allow me to introduce myself. I am the square root of your experience. I go by many names. But my name of names…”

“Bored now.” You say in a rush. “I want to find out what that growl is about.”

You hurry on down the trail and the little green snake follows. “Maybe I should have just opened with I am Wisdom” thinks the snake and books it to catch up.

The trail opens onto a clearing and there in the center is the source of the commotion. A ginormous red cat is growling and howling it’s head off. You make eye contact with the cat just as the little green snake reaches the clearing.

“What do you have to calm that beast,” asks the snake. “Is there anything in your bag?”

You look in your bag and find 9 balls of yarn. You pull out the first one which carries the label “Family”. You toss it at the cat and the cat steps on the end and bats it out into the clearing unwinding the ball till it stops. “Oh no’” you exclaim that is way too far”. You walk out to the yarn and begin winding it back up. After a few winds you decide that is far enough and you set it down in the grass. The snake offers to help and stretches itself from the entrance to the clearing to this ball of yarn to mark the distance.

The big red cat has lowered his growl but is still very much rumbling, so you reach in your bag for another ball of yarn. This next one is labeled “Friends”.

You toss it at the big red cat, and it bats it again at a 90-degree angle out into the clearing. It goes out further than the first one went. You look at the snake. It shrugs what would have been shoulders. “That will not do” you declare and walk to the yarn and wind it up to where it should be. The now-not-so-little snake grows a bit longer, stretches around to this ball of yarn, and marks where you have set this new distance.

The cat seems to enjoy this game and so you throw a third ball of yarn labeled “Career”. It gets batted 90-degrees almost to the edge of the clearing. You look at the snake. You know if it could, it would have its hands on its hips. “Hey, I have to make a living and if I don’t do it, they will get someone else and oh alright” you concede as you walk out to the yarn and wind it back to where you are comfortable and set it down. The snake stretches around and marks the spot.

The red cat is sitting still, quietly staring at you. Without breaking the stare you throw a fourth ball of yarn. This one is labeled “Relaxation”. The red cat bats the ball of yarn ever so gently and it comes to rest a very short distance away. “You gonna take that?” asks the snake. “NO, of course not!” you reply but it comes out as more of a whimper. “noofcoursenot” You walk to the yarn and unwind a bit. “Meow” says the cat, grinning now, and you unwind a bit more. You set the ball of yarn down, sigh, and think, “I guess it gets easier with boundaries.” The snake stretches to mark this distance and nods in approval.

“Promise me something” says the snake. “Promise me you will not set these boundaries in stone. Promise me you will check your balls from time to time.”

“HAHAHAHAHA” you laugh out loud. “Sure” you promise.

“You are such a child” says the snake, shakes its head, stretches over to where its tail began, bites it and sighs.

There are more balls of yarn in your bag. None are labeled. There is every color of the rainbow, dark and light. Plus, gold and silver sparkles, beads shaped like unicorn horns, and one that smells like apple jolly ranchers.

You decide to keep these for another day and close the bag.

Then you notice the now-very-manageable-size red cat is doing figure eights around your legs. You pick up the cat and find that sweet spot under its chin. You are rewarded with purrs and nozzles. “You are my strength, sweet cat. You are such a strong kitty. I will take you home.”

As you leave the clearing and head down the trail you hear the little green snake coming up behind shouting. “Wait for me. You won’t be able to keep that cat a manageable size without me.”

“Very well,” you answer over your shoulder, “but don’t expect me to always listen.” “Never thought you would.” Says the little green snake. “But you do surprise me sometimes.”

Back on the porch you rock in the rocking chair, listening to the bird song, watching the butterfly dance, sipping your favorite morning beverage, with a purring cat in your lap. The always-the-right-size snake encircles the little home, bites its tail, and falls asleep. You feel safe enough to doze a while as well, protected by your inner strength and wisdom.

Rock a few more times, take a deep breath, stretch, and open your eyes when you are ready.