Walking Meditation for Ukraine

and anyone, anywhere suffering from violence

image courtesy of adobestock.com

Terror screams through our screens, Russian atrocities shock us into scrolling. And in slow motion, everywhere on this planet, mother nature has had it. She tosses whole neighborhoods, whole cities over one shoulder and then the other, with her own arsenal of hurricanes, floods, fires, snow bombs, earthquakes.

We are killing ourselves with unconsciousness.

Sometimes we suffer in silence, and we think it’s the only thing we can do.

But it’s not.

We can let clamor the rabid chaos of the world, and still press peace into the ground through our feet with every step.

We can refuse to break in the face of breaking news.

Consciously, we can press peace into the ground — peace that reaches all the way through and

into and around the world.

Be still.

We can press peace into the ground with our bodies as we walk.

We can let it pour into us from the treetops, from the sky, from space, right into the opening

at the top of our heads.

We can let peace fill us all the way full up, till it seeps through our pores, through our hands, our eyes, through the soles of our feet, till it seeps into the ground underneath us.

We can let it radiate from us, from

the center of our bones.

We can do this. We can hold this image of peace.

What does it look like? What form does it take as it physically makes its way into the ground, this peace, traveling through our bodies and into the globe,

to the worst places, the ones rotting with rape, injustice, suffering?

This peace travels with one aim: it hunts down all who kill, maim, endanger or enslave

so it can find their feet too and leak up into them, filling them with peace.

So we can know our peace as their peace, too.

See it entering their their feet, illuminating them right through their battle fatigues. Filling their minds, relaxing their trigger fingers,

erasing their need to proceed.

Let our peace be their peace, too.

Let’s fill them with it

until they put down their guns and walk away.

Let our peace be their peace, too,

as we push this quiet love into the world

with every step, as we walk to our kitchen sinks,

down our streets, through our hallways, our parks,

our subways, and dark alleys, as we walk in schools and prisons,

casinos and Costcos, hospitals and hell holes, churches,

temples, mosques, holy places of all kinds.

Peace can travel through all our feet to everyone, as we walk anywhere.

Today let us press peace into the world,

let our peace be its peace, too,

with every step we take.

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Anyone wishing to donate money, food or supplies to help the Ukrainian people can find reputable charities either here or here.