Article by Stefanie Johnson

There are magical places that exist within each one of us, inside our minds, hearts, and souls. By visiting these places, we can tap into the infinite and bring peace and abundance into our lives.

 

Each journey will be unique, as we are unique, so you may want to have a notebook and pen nearby to record your experience afterward. You may choose to have another person read the meditation to you so you may experience it more fully.      

 

Find a comfortable place, close your eyes, open your mind, and prepare yourself to travel within.

 

This week, let us experience the freedom and beauty of the Bird’s Flight. We will grow wings to soar above the problems of the day, and see the landscapes of our lives as they truly are, the majestic mountains as well as the deep, dark valleys.

 

The sun has just risen, and everything around you is soft, edged in gold light and silver dew. You are perched on a branch, watching the new day being born. You are a bird (what kind of bird do you see yourself as? What color are your feathers?), and the world looks bigger and sharper and more exciting to you than it ever has before. A soft, cool breeze ruffles your feathers, and you feel full of joy. 

 

This day and all that it holds belongs to you. You are free to explore it, to find whatever wisdom or adventure you want. All you have to do is spread your wings and focus your intentions. Whatever you want in your life, whatever you are striving for, see it now. Know that the journey you are about to take will make it possible for you to achieve, and take flight.

 

As you fly, you feel the wind on your body. Your wings are strong and sure, and you know you have the resilience to travel as fast and as far as you want to.

 

But before you can reach your true destination with a whole heart and clear mind, you first must visit the dark place, the valley of the past, where nothing moves and nothing grows.

 

The hills that surround the valley are rocky and barren, so steep they seem to blot out the sun. In the deepest part of the valley, there is a dark, dirty pool, with one skeletal tree that grows in the center of it. You land on one of the brittle branches of that tree, and look down into the dirty water. In the depths, you see fragmented images, as though they were on shards of a broken mirror. You see yourself, and all the darkest pieces of your life. The moments you regret. The moments that cause you sorrow.

 

Don’t turn away. Look at them. Really look at them. Look how they have poisoned this place. Look at how they refuse to let anything new or wonderful grow here. Look, know, and let go.

 

You have faced the worst. You have faced yourself. You are stronger for it now.  It’s time to move on.

 

You now see that one of the branches of the tree has come to life, and a flower has grown from it. Delicately, you take the flower into your beak and drop it into the water, an offering of peace and forgiveness for the past.

 

Suddenly, a brilliant, beautiful light bursts forth from the water, and when it subsides the water is no longer dark and haunted. Now it is clear, reflecting the endless sapphire of the open sky.

 

Full of joy, feeling lighter now than you ever have before, you fly from the valley. Your wings are strong, and you can fly higher, farther, faster than ever before. Your adventures will be breathtaking. Your journeys will be magnificent.

 

Where do you want to go from here? What location has your heart been yearning for? Fly there now, be there, feel the joy. If you can, say aloud what you are experiencing.

 

Once you are ready to land again, slowly open your eyes, but always keep with you that vision of the endless sky, and the knowledge that you can grow wings and explore it.

 

I was honored to serve as your guide on this journey within. I hope we will travel together again soon.

 

“As for meditation, I would like you to be a disciple of prayer, because without prayer … Let it be an interior conversation with God more than a work of the mind. Then, a scattered, distracted meditation will come together, because it will express all the thoughts and needs of your heart.”
-Peter Julian Eymard

 

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