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, we will travel the golden sands and see the desert blooming with life after a rare and wonderful rain.  Here you will find a soft place, a kind, beautiful, welcoming place in the midst of a world of survival and harshness. 

 

You are walking alone.  No path stretches out before you.  There are no landmarks here, and the landscape looks the same from every angle, tall golden dunes and jewel-bright sky.  The sun beams down on you, hot and bright.  You are hot, exhausted, hungry, and thirsty.  You are not sure what you will do if you don’t find some water or shelter soon.  It occurs to you that this is how you have always felt in your life, that you were traveling alone through some savage wasteland, unsure of survival.

 

You stop and look down at your feet.  There is something there, a tiny curl of green, a baby plant somehow strong enough to poke its head out of the sands and live, despite the heat and intense light, despite the lack of water. 

 

And suddenly, you know.  There is no lack.

 

You will take what is given, no matter how much or little it is, and you will grow, you will thrive.

 

You just need to keep your faith, and keep walking.  You just need to keep pushing through the sand, for if you stop and give in to it, the wasteland will claim you.

 

And so you walk on.  Without a compass, or landmarks.  You don’t know where you’re going.  There’s a good chance you could become lost in this dry, unforgiving desert forever.

 

But you won’t get lost.  You are not lost at all.  You are following the truest compass, your own inner sense.  It will not lead you wrong.  You are going to a place you have chosen.

 

You call for rain.

 

You look up at the sky, and notice it has suddenly become cooler, more overcast.  And then, it begins to rain.

 

This rain is just for you, and you revel in it.  You thrust your arms out and catch the cool water droplets in your palms, and tilt your head back and drink the clean, pure water that falls from the sky.

 

All around you, the desert bursts to life.  Tiny plants unfurl, and push themselves upward.  You thought this place was dead and empty, and now you see how wrong you were.  There was life all around you the whole time - just waiting beneath the surface for a little rain to bring it to full flower. You called the rain here to you, and now everything around you has been born into beauty.

 

You sit in a soft patch of vibrant grass that has sprouted up, and bury your feet in the damp, warm sand.  You can see in the distance that the rain does not fall everywhere, but that doesn’t matter.  It is here, now, and you are here, now.  That is the most important thing.

 

You eat a couple of tiny, sweet red berries that popped from a bush beside you.  They are more delicious than fresh strawberries, and juicier than plump grapes.

 

Flowers bloom around you, delicate and beautiful. (What color are they? What do they make you think of?)

 

This is your place.  This is your oasis, and the oasis of every living thing you invite here.

 

No matter where you are in the world, no matter how bad things seem, keep your faith and call for rain.  Wonderful things will happen. 

 

It may not always come when you call.  But it will come when you need it.

 

“Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years.  We grow old by deserting our ideals.  Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.”
-Samuel Ullman

 

If you liked this article, please share it on del.icio.us, StumbleUpon or Digg. Thanks!