Season 1 Episode 4 Water

The podcast is about listening to the divine in everything, including water. The host guides listeners through a meditation on water, asking them to imagine their favorite body of water and notice its movement, temperature, taste, color, and smell. They are encouraged to become one with the water and trace its journey from its source in the mountains to a stream, a lake, a river, and finally the ocean. Each body of water represents different characteristics and experiences. The meditation ends with the listeners returning to their own bodies. The host asks for feedback and thanks the listeners for tuning in. Welcome to Airtime with Pat, a podcast intended to help each of us listen more deeply to the divine always around us, within us, others, and creation. I'm Pat Sigler, I will be your host each Tuesday at 8 a.m. Central Time. Today we are spending time together in a guided meditation on water. Please sit in a comfortable meditation position. Close your eyes if you're comfortable doing so, and then focus on your breathing. Take three deep breaths. Breathing in and out. In and out. And a third time. In and out. Good. Picture in your mind your favorite body of water. It may be as large as an ocean, or as small as a brook. Notice the way in which the water moves, the way it holds its own space, the way it impacts that which surrounds it. Notice how the water feels. Is it cool? Or warm? Is it icy? Is it refreshing? Notice how it tastes. Notice the color of the water, and its smell. Be aware of what is carried by the water, small bits of plant or animals, particles of soil and sand, fish and other aquatic creatures, some too small to be seen by human eyes. Become one with the water, carrying what it carries, taking its form. In your mind's eye, trace the water back to its source, back through the rivers and streams and lakes and waterfalls. Back to its source, somewhere in the mountains. Experience yourself as a stream, beginning with rain and melted snow, somewhere high above sea level. As you begin your journey, you're but a tiny stream, bubbly with new possibilities, exploring and shaping your own path through crevices in rock or channels left by glaciers that receded long ago. Feel your energy, feel your power and strength as you shape your own path through the mountains. Feel the changing nature of your being as you grow with spring melts, contract with summer drought and freeze in the depths of winter. You are full of joy, enthusiasm and the energy that can literally move mountains. Now grace your path downstream a bit, to a place where you become fresh water, a lake, with water spilling through into the lake's inlet and leaving at its outlet. You are constantly renewed by a fresh supply of water, from sending your own living waters forth, carrying a rich mixture of life and life-giving soil. You feel full, but not over-full, strong and deep, full of motion, and yet somehow stable in your lake bed. Trace your path downstream to the mighty river, broad and moving, carrying not only life but also commerce. You are in a hurry, in constant motion, moving things relentlessly and powerfully downstream. You remain mostly in your river bed, but not always. Sometimes the water coming in from melted snow or heavy rains leaves you with not enough space for its volume. You spill over the banks, or blocks, or acres, or miles, covering everything in your path with water, bringing destruction, and at the same time bringing soil and nutrients which will enrich the earth when the waters recede and you return to your river bed. You feel powerful, even mighty. You are responsible for much and receive from everywhere, and sometimes it gets to be too much that things spill over. Now trace your path to the small stagnant pool left behind by the receding waters. There is no inlet or outlet for this pool. You are self-contained. Your warm waters are rich broth. You support life well. Your ecosystem is isolated from other bodies of water. There is calm here. There is decay and stagnation as well. Now trace your path to the mighty ocean, constantly in motion, answering to the forces of the moon and wind and weather, moving in warm and cold currents, interconnected with one another. You are the place where life arose on earth, the cradle for billions of species. Dorms rock you, but only in isolated places. You are too big, too broad, and too deep for one hurricane, one snowstorm, one tsunami to affect more than a small part of who and what you are. You are always in motion, ever restless, always changing, part of the essential nature of the earth itself. Feel your endless motion as your waves rise and fall and churn. As you breathe, reflect on the ways that your life resembles the different bodies of water. With which images do you most closely identify? When you are ready, please return to your own body, your chair, or the room that you are in. And when you have returned fully, open your eyes and stretch. Friends, if you like this content, please give a thumbs up. And remember to follow or subscribe to the channel, add some comments if you like. But no matter what, thanks for listening to Not Just Airtime with Pat. And until next week, take good care.