Contemplation

A peaceful day of meditation and spiritual growth. For some reason, my phone was still on east coast time. When the alarm went off, I procrastinated on getting out of bed and hustled out at the last minute for the seven o’clock spiritual readings only to realize when I got outside into the pitch blackness that it was actually 4 o’clock in the morning. I went back to bed and after a period of restlessness, I got a few more zzz’s.

California’s oldest pepper tree

A walking meditation, a silent lunch and a meditation on a poem written by Rudyard Kipling, “If”. An interesting day of unique insights then a little quiet time in the afternoon. I wandered over to the mission itself. A military wedding was going on inside, so we weren’t able to sit in the church for silent contemplation as we usually do. Lots of tourists and people wandering the lush mission grounds for a Saturday outing. I walked through the cemetery, said a prayer at a family friend’s memorial then returned to the garden areas behind the retreat center and walked their little labyrinth.

I joined a few friends after for some chanting in the Ibarra Room then we walked out of the door directly into another beautiful sunset. Dinner’s on tap then more meditation. This is all I’ll write trying to stick with an intention of limited distractions.