Modified Meditation

Everyone needs a place and a time where they can reconnect with themselves, and, hopefully, either find or rediscover God in the process. What that looks like will be as unique as the individual who practices this thing that many loosely describe as meditation. My own best time for quiet contemplation is late at night when we've laid the day to rest for all practical purposes and nothing remains but for body and mind to relax. That's the time I retreat to The Greenhouse, our garden room that has become sacred space within a larger context I call Pa Amani (Swahili for "place of peace").

Thomas Merton had some helpful things to say about meditation, as did Thomas Kelley and others, and I encourage anyone to read what they had to say and glean what is most helpful. "What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves? This is the most important of all voyages of discovery, and without it, all the rest are not only useless, but disastrous" (Thomas Merton). My own experience of regular reflection may best be termed modified meditation; Whereas eastern meditation aims at emptying one's self, Christian meditation seeks a greater filling of one's self with the person of Jesus Christ, and for me that is something far more active than it is passive. These are the times a relaxed body and focused mind seem to foster intense creativity. In other words, I am still, but I'm not immobile. Granted, I wish I had the energy during late night inspiration to channel the creative urge into some beautiful work of art, but I am content to find the energy to record my thoughts on paper, or smart phone, or whatever is within reach at the moment. Deep thought for me always leads to an effort to record it. "Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time" (Merton).

I encourage you to experiment with modified meditation. Retreat to your own holy place and take with you something with which to record your thoughts. Think and write, or draw, or paint, and think some more. Then share your results with others. Self-discovery was never intended as a selfish exercise. What you come upon in the doing may surprise you; you just may come upon yourself, and find that behind it all is a loving Father beckoning you to embrace Him by knowing and sharing yourself with someone else.