M E D I TAT I O N n e ar CRO SS VILL AGE Deda Kavanagh A conscious inhalation, any length. Hold it for three, feel strength in mathematics, how brave you are to count, and know you count. Deep exhale for as long as is necessary to say, Soft soft soft to connect to jaw, to sacrum then coccyx to hips and on to cheek and throat. to swallow. And back again. To take in–– Bloodroot Trout lily and pretty-in-Pink Ladyslipper snowy Nodding Trillium to listen–– how silent, a boy passes, smooth on a bike, how the Quaking Aspen hushes all the others to its psalm, how House Finch to finch chirp, Tsk and tsk to catch a whiff–– of coffee on the stove, percolating, Muskmelon, new and insistent on the counter. Deep inhale now hold and count for just a taste of His hand on your shoulders, telling you, Go soft . . .
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