Emptiness: a contemplative space

Last week I took a few days at my dear friend’s cottage in southeast Nova Scotia. When I am in a consistent rhythm I try to take at least two overnight retreats a year, either on my own or with a group. These are times for me to renew my contemplative practice and refocus my spiritual curiosity for deeper transformation and communion with the Source of all being. I spent some time with videos I received about mysticism and contemplation from the religious order I am an associate with.

As always, I took a walk to the beach, right on the Atlantic Ocean. As soon as I heard the waves, my body changed. My breath and my heart caught the waves’ rhythm and I could feel the air and water flowing all through me.

The speaker in the videos said something like, “There’s more to us than what we are at any given moment. We want to find that place.” When I sat on the sand, I entered into a meditation on what I started to call the Emptiness. It might be that place.

I am still. My mind is quiet.
Waves come closer, wash over me.
Purging, I trust my breath.
I face the depths. What do I expect to see?

I see emptiness.
I enter in, seeking nothing.
The Emptiness is enough.

I rest and I open
Ready for revelation
My reactions,
Impatience, disappointment, relief,
may be revelation enough.

The Emptiness is not empty to you.
It is suffused with your love.
I am safe, to sit in the stillness
while you
oh so gently
invite me to empty.

The Emptiness is becoming my mental contemplation space. As soon as I close my eyes, I am in the water, emptying, pushed in on all sides in a kind of embrace.

Do you have a place you go when you practice meditation? I’d love to hear about it.