Lakeside Meditation

Take 3 deep, cleansing breaths and if you feel comfortable doing so, close your eyes. Picture in your mind's eye a dense forest with towering coniferous trees. Notice how their massive trunks resemble the supporting pillars of a cathedral while their arching branches provide a comparable cavernous space. Even the leaves, with the sunlight pouring through them, look like tiny, scintillating, bright green pieces of stained glass. Take in this scene as fully as you can and breathe in the fresh, spring air. As you walk along the path, you come across a gushing, turbulent brook. You follow it a ways down stream until you reach a shining, rippling lake with cattails bordering its marshy shores. Pause for a moment here and breathe in deep. After marveling for a time at the view, you suddenly realize that there’s a rock protruding up over the water. Once you spot the vestiges of a path, you walk up onto the rock and sit down. It’s warm from the sun’s receding rays. As you sit beside the lake, you watch as the setting sun paints the clouds pink, purple, orange, and gold and admire how perfectly the water reflects the image hanging in the sky. Occasionally, a warm breeze fractures the mirrored sunset into mesmerizing, fractal patterns of light. Take another 3 deep breaths.  As the sun begins to sink below the horizon, a chorus of peepers makes their presence known along the shore.