I love living in Brooklyn for at least one hundred reasons. One of them is that we get all four seasons here, usually in equal measure. This year the seasons are reluctant to change and so am I– I liked things the way they were! I am anticipating a number of changes in my life and like this year’s reluctant Spring, I feel reluctant to go along with them. Clearly the changes are happening whether or not I give consent and so I have been craving stability. I was inspired to visit this practice each day this week:
“Attuned to the stability of the earth, I proceed with confidence.” This is the intention I have been repeating. Its purpose becomes very clear when I add Bhu mudra, peace sign fingers turned downward to make contact with the ground. After about five minutes meditating using the intention like a mantra, I move into Tadasana, mountain pose, for at least eight breaths. Finally, I do a small painting of a mountain and a valley.
I would like to share some observations that have come from repeating my practice for stability. First, I have to say that I don’t devote a lot of time to this practice. Fifteen minutes at most. I know I want and need to do it so I fit it in, but sometimes I approach it in a rush. Interesting, because stability isn’t a rushy kind of thing. The things that happen when I do the practice make that clear. First, I am sometimes tempted to do my meditation right in the chair I’m sitting in when I think to do it. That often works fine, but with Bhu mudra you want the fingers to make contact with the earth. So I move to the floor and immediately increase stability. Next, I repeat the intention to myself and I start to get mental images. I think it’s because the word “earth” is evocative; lovely strong mountains and earthy green and brown images flow through my mind’s eye. I have found that I’m then drawn to continue both the image and the intention as I align my body into mountain pose. A few breaths there and I have enough patience and inspiration to do a little painting. And I mean just a little—I’ve been I started the week with watercolors and switched to water-soluble colored pencils. The pencils are fantastic; a few quick lines can be swiped with a wet brush and turned into a fluid landscape. I noticed that even a shorthand drawing of a mountain and a valley, just a line moving up and down is effective. I move the brush or pencil thinking “hills and valleys” and right away my mind goes to the inevitability of my own highs and lows. Seeing a holistic image emerge helps me feel accepting. I easily watch my resistance melt as I “get” that changes are a necessary part of the beautiful big picture. Making a little painting each day helps me to see how the perception of beauty can shift over time, just as each season has its charms.
See what you think! Give this practice a try if you need a little stability in your life this week. 
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