Several weeks ago now, when the Coronavirus was something that was happening far away and barely on my radar screen, my 2nd grader took a bath in our Master bathroom.  In typical fashion, he used his towel to dry off and then left it on the floor.  Also, in typical fashion, I didn’t get around to picking it up that night.  In non-typical fashion, the corner of his towel happened to land in the self-filling water bowl we have in that same bathroom for our two cats.  The next morning, when I finally got around to getting the towel off the floor, it had soaked up almost the entire gallon of water in the cat’s watering station.  I picked up the sopping wet towel, wrung it out and draped it over the tub to dry.

This image of the soaking wet towel has come crashing back into my imagination during this past week.  It seems that Humanity is the towel and we’ve landed in a difficult Reality that we have no choice but to soak up.  I want to offer today, some time and space for you to allow yourself to notice what you’ve taken in.  Maybe you will choose to make it a practice of gratitude – noticing all the good that has come.  Act of kindness.  Getting to spend more time with your kids.  Your resilience.  Maybe you will choose to acknowledge the difficulty of this moment in time – noticing what has been hard.  The fear you feel.  The worry about your own health or that of loved ones.  The feeling of inadequacy that has overwhelmed you in these days.  What have you taken in that needs a bit of attention today?  What needs to be felt?  Acknowledged?  Celebrated?  Take a couple minutes to see what arises.  Notice what you need to stay with it for a while. 

You are like a towel, soaking wet.  Now, imagine wringing yourself out.  Letting it all go.  The good.  The difficult.  The things too hard to acknowledge yet.  All of it.  Wring it out.  If you need to soak some of it up again later, it will be there.  But for now, you need space to soak up a different Reality.  The Reality of Christ with us and within us.  The Reality of the life-giving water offered to us in every moment.     

I want to invite you into your heart space for a while.  All it takes to get there is to bring awareness to the center of your chest area.  If it helps, bring your hand up to that place on your body and just breathe for a while.  God is flowing constantly – within, without, among, between.  Willing you to soak up anything and everything you need.  What do you need today?  Peace.  Rest.  Creativity.  Comfort.  Friendship.  Affirmation.  Love.  Patience.  What do you need?  Imagine dipping your hand, your foot, you heart into the flow of God.  All you need is right there.  Soak it up.  Drench yourself.  What do you need?  Take a couple minutes to see what arises.  Notice what you need and stay with it for a while.   

You are like a towel, soaking wet.  Don’t wring yourself out.  Go in peace, my friends.  You are soaked with life-giving water!  Walk wet in the world today.  Dripping all over the people you meet.  Allowing what you have soaked in to seep deeper into you.  Deeper.  Deeper still.     

©DanaLee Simon, Sage Hill, March 2020

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