When I started meditating I used to think that I could only practice on the cushion. And while there is great benefit in practicing regularly in your habitual meditation space, it does not mean that you cannot practice anywhere else.
Today I found a sunny spot and I sat there (with sunscreen!). I noticed the sensations of sunlight on the body, the contact of the breeze with the skin, the changing light through the eyelids as the clouds passed.
At the end of my practice I dedicated a moment of gratitude. I used to take the sun for granted when I was living in Spain - things are very different here... I was grateful for its presence and what it does for us every day: nourishing plants, animals, and ourselves. And I remembered Mary Oliver’s poem:
Have you ever seen
anything
in your life
more wonderful
than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon
and into the clouds or the hills,
or the rumpled sea,
and is gone–
and how it slides again
out of the blackness,
every morning,
on the other side of the world,
like a red flower
streaming upward on its heavenly oils,
say, on a morning in early summer,
at its perfect imperial distance–
and have you ever felt for anything
such wild love–
do you think there is anywhere, in any language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure
that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out,
as it warms you
as you stand there,
empty-handed–
or have you too
turned from this world–
or have you too
gone crazy
for power,
for things?
