Steadiness

Meditation is not about strengthening our steadiness muscle – the calm strength that holds us together when life sways. It’s the quiet confidence that we can meet what arises, one breath at a time.

Each time you notice yourself pulled away and choose to return — you are cultivating steadiness. Each breath you meet with gentle awareness strengthens that experience. We learn to trust ourselves and instinct to act decisively.

Steadiness, by Robert J Tiess

Indulging in the moderate,
no oak or pine implores for more
than soil, water, wind, and light.

Trees do not crave outlandish things
or dash in daft and frantic quests
for wealth or fleeting oddities.

They’re quite content residing there,
enduring weeds and mingling roots
between the season’s leaves and sky.

Tree years?  They’re syrup, sticky, slow,
not thin or quick as human whims,
which drift distracted, wish to wish.

I’ve splintered instants, hurried weeks
of shifting dreams, new scenery,
instead of resting, tending growth.

Now oak and pine incline my mind
toward ordinary longer days
reveling in life’s steadiness.

I’ll wander still but love each step.
It’s patience earth is teaching me
to see where change needs constancy.

Guide: Noelle Lim

Image credit: Andrew Danilov, Unsplash