A Lover's Voice

"Start with the breath," meditation experts advise us, recommending long, slow, deep, smooth breaths. This helps the body enter into a state of deep relaxation. It also helps the conscious mind to turn off so that the unconscious mind can turn on. Long. Slow. Deep. Smooth. Long. Slow. Deep. Smooth.

Someone once suggested that I “breathe from the heart.” What a nice thought!  Like slow dancers pleasingly intertwined in each other's embrace, in this picture our heart and lungs swing and sway together, creating life for us. Sweet.  

So, I was focusing on breathing from my heart while meditating when I heard a voice say, "Now...breath from my heart." Whoa! Where did that come from? It sounded like an invitation to dance. But with whom?

All I know is it felt like it was coming from somewhere deep inside me--as close as my breath--that somehow, it was me and at the same time, it was beyond me. Actually, it's a "voice" with which I am very familiar...one I'm in frequent conversation with, especially while praying or meditating...a voice that I listen for and trust keenly...a lover's voice that has profoundly touched and shaped me throughout my life. And yes, it is an invitation to dance.

I choose to believe it is what many call "God" although I believe that this, too, is a metaphor which, like all metaphors, works well for some but not for others. It's one among many, all of which give us but a glimpse of something greater than any one of them--or all of them. 

How are we to articulate our deeply personal and unique experiences of this Sense or Presence or Lover's Voice that is as close to us as our breath? (I'm convinced that language is the biggest barrier we face here. Yet, ironically, it's all we've got.) Perhaps a first step is to acknowledge our ineptitude and its grandeur. 

“Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars.”  Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary