You are walking down a dirt road. There are rocks and boulders on either side. No one is in sight. You feel the hot air on your skin and look up at the sky and trees as you walk. Far off in the distance, you see a figure. As you keep walking, you realize that it's another person. Even closer, you realize it is a child. You are a few feet away from the child now, and you realize that this child is you. You bend down to look into his/her/your eyes for a moment. You want to give this child one piece of advice, the most important piece you can fathom now that you are an adult. You hold the child by the shoulders, look into her/her eyes and tell them that one thing. You embrace.
After coming out of the meditation, we opened our eyes and Melanie asked us to write down that once piece of advice on the paper. We then folded it up and passed it to the right and the left and the right, over and over again until our paper had traveled to the other side of the circle. We were then allowed to unfold and read the advice someone else gave to him/herself as a child. The one I received was as follows:
You can always change your way of thinking and being no matter where you come from.
I cherish this for many reasons, but mostly because it came from the depths of another person's soul, memory, meditation. It's such an intimate thing, and the fact that we could share that with each other as a group was extremely powerful.
So, what one thing would you tell yourself, as a child?
What advice did I give my child-self?: Love.
4 comments:
I had a similar experience when I was going through hypno-therapy a year ago. I had to go back and talk with my child-self and give her a message. Like yours, it was one of love: "You are loved."
If I had to do it again, especially given my funk lately, I'd probably say, "You are worthy."
What a great experience for you to share with us, Catherine! I'm glad that your group was able to share so openly. I think I might have felt pressure to say something falsely "profound," but it seems like your group had the right idea.
kitkat-Thanks :) It was smart of our facilitator not to tell us what the paper was for until after the meditation was over. If she had said anything, I'm sure the experience would have been vastly different. I'm looking forward to see you soon!
The one thing I would tell my younger self is to get off your keester and get busy! You can do so much more than you're doing!
As for the other... at church the other week the priest talked in his homily about how those areas of our lives where we refuse to forgive ourselves is the area where we feel we do not deserve God's love. And, we are loved, all of us, and we need to allow God's perfect love to replace our own imperfections.
Don't disappear on us again! The blog world misses you.
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