Become a Lake

How do you become a lake? I'm grief-stricken and in a lot of emotional pain right now. I don't know how to become a lake? How do I enlarge my sense of things?

Imagine you are the water and the small glass. Imagine the water quantities is increasing with no where to go, no space to be free. Feel the emotions that come with it. And then when you are ready imagine a crack starts to form in the glass, only a small one at first (it doesn't matter in which environment you have pictured the glass) then continue to imagine that this crack isbecoming bigger and bigger and bigger until finally the glass smashes into small unnoticeable pieces. The water begins to flow and fill all the small crevices of the environment, it keeps flowing and flowing and flowing and flowing, now feel the emotions that come with the newly found freedom.

I hope Julie's grief has abated by now, but others may come across this later as I did. I think the more practical application of this metaphor comes down to practicing intentional outward awareness. It is very difficult in the midst of pain to focus on anything other than the pain. But you can incrementally work on expanding your focus. One way to do this is to think of one thing, no matter how significant or seemingly insignificant, for which you are grateful: color, a friend, a memory, ... Helping others in need, even if that is no more than praying for them, also helps dilute your pain.

Three years later I get to write... the vessel which we are gets bigger when we do Transcendental Meditationion 2 x a day.