Relax into Spring

If there is such a thing as full spring, these days, this week is it. Cool and breezy with a sun warm enough to help you shed your outer layer. Fruit trees in bloom--pink cherry blossoms and white pear trees looking like a blizzard landed in their branches. Birds singing and building their nests in those branches.

Meditation helps us shed our outer layer--that first layer of armor--defensiveness, anxiety, worry, bother, frustration, or irritation. Whatever your particular flavor of armor against the world, the first meditation instruction could just as well be: Relax. Relax the body and allow the mind to remain alert. The body doesn't need to be on alert. The body doesn't need to be vigilant. The body doesn't have to be poised to spring.

The first loving-kindness phrase is "May i feel safe."

Feel safe now. In your body. In the room where you are. In your home. In your garden. In your neighborhood. On your street. In your community.

Relax into spring. Relax into the kind friendliness that is all around you.