Sacred

I was at one of my favourite places the other day.  I call the route the Sacred Mountain hike.  I could drive to the destination, but I like to park at the bottom and walk up to the top of the mountain.  There is a lot to see along the way.  Sometimes I chat with people who live in the neighbourhood.  Sometimes I need the exertion of one foot in front of the other until there is nothing but the step and the breath.

The whole area has always felt special to me, and several of the people who live in the area have told me it’s been a sacred place since it was inhabited only by the indigenous people.

I looked up from watching ants and saw a man stop at the cactus garden, then kneel.  Maybe he was doing as I had done.. kneeling to look more closely at things, then I realized he saw that garden as a sacred place. I witnessed how he used the place for healing, and it was a beautiful thing to see.

That to which we attach meaning becomes sacred.  It can be a place designed as such, used in reverence over centuries, or something as simple as a rock one finds while walking.

I’ve been reading some of dancer and choreographer Martha Graham lately.  What she says about dancers applies to us all.

“Wherever a dancer stands ready; that place is holy ground”

“The body is a sacred garment. It’s your first and last garment; it is what you enter life in and what you depart life with, and it should be treated with honor. ”

“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium, and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. ”

If we are mindful to be standing ready, opportunities begin to emerge…. things we were not able to see when our minds were too cluttered with the detritus of the every day.

Begin to see the sacred around you.

Begin to see the sacred in your Self.