Why I Sit. By Marcie Warrington.

Marcie Warrington is the founder of MotherLOVE and a City Silence partner. We asked her to share why meditation is important to her.

Here is what she wrote.

Why do I sit?

When I thought deeply about how to answer this question, it occurred to me that the best way to answer was to simply share this morning’s “sitting” and the remainder of my day. For background information, I have been sitting nearly daily for over twenty-five years. Along the way, I have practiced guided visualization, mindfulness, loving kindness, insight meditation, sacred text/prayer recital, pranayama, and most consistently of all, mantra meditation. Today, like most days of the past month, I was a flower, a lily to be exact, inspired freely by all of the methods above and my many beloved teachers.

I started with Thich Nhat Hanh- always a perfect beginning and no-end - with mindful breathing. “Breathing in, I know I am breathing in. Breathing out, I know I am breathing out.” “In…out; in…out; in…out;…” “Breathing in, I know I am breathing deep. Breathing out, I know I am breathing slow.” “Deep…slow; deep…slow; deep…slow…” And on I went combining my in and out breaths with what I needed this morning…”calm…smile at my body”…; ”joy…peace”… ;until the time felt right to become a flower.

My breathing as a flower continued. I was a “ lily…fresh”, a “lily…beauty”, and a “lily…complete.” Contented and fully a lily, I then moved to mantra meditation. Specifically, the Hamsa mantra, meaning “I am That.” “Hum…su”, hum…su”…, until I dropped all sound, all thought and simply was THAT, a lily. As magnificent as THAT was, it didn’t stop there. First, I felt my connection to the sun, rising up to meet it’s brilliance, it’s rays of warmth and light upon me. Then in turn, the soil, my roots deep within, grounding me; the air and our mutual need for the other; the rain, feeding the soil for my roots to suck up and feed me; and then my connection not only to the flowers and plants around me, but also all the flowers, all the lilies, that had come before. I experienced inter-being. You see why I jump out of bed each morning? It is a gift beyond words to be a lily. Each day different, as each sitting, of any modality, always is. Somedays, it is enough just to show up.

As if this morning’s meditation itself was not enough (it is), the rest of my day reverberates the experience.

As I go about my day, as me, I carry the lily within me. I have more than enough in my physical surroundings- a roof over my head, food, water, transportation, the luxury of beautiful things . I am grateful. I feel the warmth of the sun, hear the chirp of a bird, accept the cold winds of winter, am woo’d by rainbows. I am aware. Beauty abounds. I feel more connected to my family, not only the genes, but the time, experiences and most of all, the love we share. I feel my ancestors’ presence in my life, my life’e very existence an extension of theirs. I feel the living presence of my loved ones no longer on this earth, that live each day not only in my heart, but in the inter-being that connects all existence. And for some precious moments of the day, I remember and experience inter-being and feel the connection to all that is.

So, now, going back to the original question posed, “why do I sit?”

I sit because I blossom.