A Leaf In The Stream - a meditative story
Imagine, if you would, what it would feel like to stand on the bank of a small, clear stream. As you look with your eyes, the water appears perfectly still. It is not until you see a leaf pass you, floating on the water, that you recognize the water is actually moving.
The clarity that Spirit has is like this stream. When we settle into the current of Spirit, we feel a deep stillness. When we are within this stillness, a part of our brain may insist that nothing is happening. We have no ability to see the water flowing until there is a leaf, something flowing within Spirit, that tells us that the stream is indeed moving.
As we mediate or feel stillness in our normal waking lives we come to know that just because it doesn’t feel like anything is happening, it doesn’t mean something isn’t happening. It simply means that we don’t have the ability to see clear water flow.
Now let’s change the metaphor. What if we were the leaf that is floating on the water? Imagine how that might feel…to be so completely available to Spirit that we indeed are that leaf floating in the current of Spirit, simply being carried along by the water. A leaf moving with the current of water would feel no pushing, no shoving, no resistance. The leaf might consider that it is not actually moving because the water is carrying it. All that it perceives is the water surrounding and supporting it, which appears to stay the same. It is moving at the same pace as the water. Apparently then, nothing is happening.
It is only if the leaf were to have the ability to look out on the shore of the river and watch as it moved past us standing there on the shore that the leaf would have the ability to register its own motion, “Oh, I am moving. Look. Look, I’m moving past this object.”
In this story we have the ability to be both the person on the shore and the leaf in the water. We can, with our worldly essence (our human form), look at that stream of Spirit and see it either as a still stream of water that doesn’t move, or a seemingly still stream that is moving a leaf along.
This is also our perspective as we stand in our day-to-day world, separate from Spirit. Spirit is the stream. We are on the shore.
As we enter into meditation, we become that leaf being carried by the stream. We don’t feel the motion. We don’t feel any waves. We don’t feel what was the resistance of our personality. We simply feel who Spirit desires us to be; who our soul wants us to be; and the journey that our soul has in mind for us now. The resistance that our personalities and egos bring to the process drops away more and more as we let ourselves be carried into the stillness of Spirit.
Flowing along within the stream of water that is Spirit, there is no resistance. There appears to be no movement, no perceptible change. Yet in these moments lies the greatest change of all. The potential for deep change lies within the smallest motion of Spirit. Allow yourself to breathe and to feel within yourself your own stillness. And through that stillness flows the stream of Spirit.
You are the leaf flowing on that seemingly still stream of water that is Spirit. As you traverse this stream of Spirit during your lifetime, what you see along the banks of the stream will change. What was in your life need not necessarily be in your life in the same way now.
This is never to say that things instantly become perfect. Rather, it is an observation that those energies within you that may have been drawn to certain people or circumstances may not be there now. It would only be your habit that would draw those people or situations back to you with the same intensity as before. This is a truth that your body may comprehend before your mind.
When we recognize the presence of Spirit, we experience first the apparent stillness of the stream. Within this stillness we need not generate more thoughts. We need simply to become comfortable with that open space of silence. The moving water within the stream does not appear to move to us when we are the observer standing on the shore.
As we turn inward in meditation, we attempt to become like the leaf, flowing within Spirit. But first we become aware of a brain that is accustomed to thinking. It is not at all a mirror of the clear stream of Spirit. Rather, our minds are the muddy waters of a churning rushing river!
As we persist in diving into the stillness beneath our mind’s thoughts, there are fewer thoughts and perhaps even moments of no thought. In those first moments of fewer thoughts there can also be panic. Odd isn’t it, that panic might arise out of stillness? For many, our constant mind chatter and outer world ‘to-do lists’ comfort us. They keep us from noticing that we are standing on the shore, watching the motion of Spirit, rather than floating like the leaf within Spirit’s stream. In those moments where we feel as if nothing is happening, whether during meditation or while reflecting upon months or years in our lives, we are apt to feel that we must take some action. But any action we take is merely to ease our feeling of panic or anxiety. In most cases by taking action during these times we merely distract ourselves again from exploring the essence of Spirit within us. We fear the silence of our own Spiritual essence within our bodies. Accustomed as we are to the outer world’s noise and chaos, the quiet of the inner world of Spirit feels empty and uncomfortable when we first experience it.
But it is not empty. We are not empty. Rather we are remembering the flow of Spirit that is imperceptible to our busy minds. Our own Spirit, flowing within our bodies is so clear that we can’t see it, and so in tune with us that we don’t feel it. Within this flowing stream of Spirit we are supported and yet never pushed or shoved. This is a support that is so deeply aligned with who we are that it feels like simply going home. As we become the leaf, the stream of Spirit fills our lives, our bodies, and our choices.
The beings who are assisting me to write this offered their presence to each of you as you have been reading the essay. Perhaps you notice a gentleness in the air around you now. Or a warmth on your skin or a thickening in the atmosphere of the room. All these are ways that we recognize the presence of Spiritual assistants. Take a moment and turn towards them. What might they share with you directly now? In a few moments or minutes you will feel them move away. The air will lighten, and you may experience a deep spontaneous sigh. Thank them for whatever experience you have had. Your offering a few moments of gratitude to them completes the release process and allows them to move on to their next task. Releasing them completely also creates a space around you to receive the next guide or angel who can assist you when needful.
This essay originated out of an idea first shared in my audio meditation “Fulfilling Your Promise to All Of Creation”. You can listen to the complete meditation and experience the gathering of Spiritual teachers working through me (offered freely) at iTunes>Podcasts>Norma Gentile or on my website, www.healingchants.com
My blessings to each of you,
Norma Gentile
Sound shaman, is a natural intuitive and channel for Mary, Archangel Michael and the Hathors. She trained as both a professional singer and energy worker. She maintains a private healing practice, offering sessions in English and Spanish, as well as singing healing concerts and teaching workshops. Her CD of live sound healings, Songs of Spirit, is available in the Maat Shop. Norma's CD Songs of Spirit, is available in the Ma'at Shop or together with her other recordings at www.healingchants.com