Meditation: June 2nd, 2025
"In the stillness between thunder and lightning, the earth holds her breath and remembers that even storms are prayers made visible."
Physical Setting & Preparation
Position yourself where you can sense the deepening of early summer—perhaps beneath a tree whose leaves now form a full canopy, or in a space where you can observe how shadows have shortened as the sun climbs higher in its daily arc. Rest your spine against something solid: a tree trunk, a stone wall, or the earth itself. Allow your breathing to synchronize with the rhythm of growing things around you. Notice how the air carries both the warmth of sun-heated earth and the coolness of morning dew still clinging to grass.
Today we embrace the energies of early June's momentum and work with the emotional currents of overwhelmed feelings and compassionate awareness that flow through us like underground streams seeking their way to light.
Opening Invocation | Fosgladh
Màthair na Talmhainn, cluinn ar glaodh
Mother of Earth, hear our call
Ann an làithean troma an t-samhraidh
In the heavy days of summer
Tha sinn a' tighinn thugaibh le eallach ar cridhe
We come to you with the burden of our hearts
Ag iarraidh do chiùineas agus do thuigse
Seeking your peace and your understanding
Place one hand upon your heart, one upon the earth or a growing thing nearby. Feel the steady pulse that connects all living beings—the rhythm that beats in your chest, in the sap rising through tree trunks, in the slow breathing of stone and soil. On this second day of June, as the world settles into summer's fuller presence, we acknowledge the overwhelmed feelings that can arise when life's abundance becomes too much to hold, and the compassionate response that the Mother offers to all her children in their struggle.
Body of the Working | Corp
Anns a' mhadainn thiugh
In the thick morning
Tha 'm foghar a' tighinn
The heaviness approaches
Breathe into the density of this June morning. With each breath, notice how the air itself seems fuller now—thick with the scent of growing grass, heavy with moisture, dense with the calls of birds and the hum of insects busy in their work. Feel how even the light seems different now, more golden, more present, carrying the weight of summer's promise.
Your overwhelmed feelings mirror this seasonal intensity. Just as the earth in June must hold the weight of countless growing things—every leaf reaching for light, every root seeking water, every flower opening to receive the sun—you too are asked to hold more than feels manageable. The overwhelm you feel is the same sensation a meadow might experience when suddenly asked to support a thousand wildflowers blooming at once.
Tha mi air mo mhùchadh
I am overwhelmed
Mar a tha a' ghàrradh lan de fhlùraichean
As the garden is full with flowers
But notice how the earth holds all this abundance without breaking. She does not push away the roses because there are also dandelions. She does not refuse the oak because the pine also needs space. Her response to overwhelming abundance is not rejection but compassionate holding—making space for all of it, supporting each thing in its season.
Feel this compassionate awareness arising in you like underground water finding its way to a spring. This is not the compassion that fixes or changes, but the compassion that simply holds—the way dark soil holds a seed, the way a mother tree extends her canopy over young saplings.
The Deep Working | An Obair Dhomhain
Sìos gu domhaineachd na Màthar
Down to the Mother's depths
Far am faigh sinn fois
Where we find rest
Descend now with your awareness into the deep places where the Mother's compassionate wisdom flows like an underground river. Imagine yourself as a forest in the full rush of June growth—every tree pushing skyward, every flower demanding attention, every creature seeking its place in the canopy of life.
In your overwhelmed state, you are like this forest, trying to be everything to everyone: the oak providing shelter, the flowering bush offering beauty, the fruit tree promising nourishment. You feel pulled in countless directions, asked to hold more than seems possible.
Tha a' Mhàthair gam choimhead
The Mother is watching over me
Le spùinneadh gun chrìoch
With endless patience
But feel how the Mother holds even the most abundant forest. She does not demand that the forest organize itself or make sense of its complexity. She simply provides the deep foundation—rich soil, steady moisture, the unchanging gravity that holds all things in place. Her compassion is not emotional but elemental: the simple, powerful act of continuing to support life even when it becomes overwhelming.
Let her teach you her way of compassionate holding. You do not need to solve your overwhelm or make it go away. You need only to provide the same patient, steady support to yourself that she provides to every growing thing. Your compassion, like hers, can be practical: offering yourself rest when you are weary, nourishment when you are depleted, space when you feel crowded.
Ionnsaich dhomh mar a chuireas mi suas ri
Teach me how I bear
Gach nì le gaol
All things with love
Your overwhelmed feelings are not evidence of failure but of aliveness. Only living things can be overwhelmed because only living things care enough to feel the weight of existence. Your compassionate response—both to yourself and to others—springs from the same source as the Mother's endless patience with her children.
Feel the healing that comes not from the removal of intensity but from the deepening of your capacity to hold intensity with love. Like an ancient tree whose rings tell the story of abundant years and lean years alike, you are growing the strength to hold whatever comes with dignity and grace.
Afterthought | Smuain Dheiridh
Dè a chuir thu an cèill an-diugh?
What did you express today?
Mu dheidhinn cumhachd a' ghaoil?
About the power of love?
Take a moment to contemplate:
How might your experience of feeling overwhelmed change if you understood it as evidence of your deep engagement with life rather than as personal inadequacy? What would it mean to extend the same patient, practical compassion to yourself that the Earth Mother shows to every overwhelmed forest, every flood-heavy river, every meadow thick with summer growth?
Closing Blessing | Beannachd Dheiridh
Beannachd na foighidinn ort
The blessing of patience upon you
Beannachd a' ghaoil nach fhàilnich
The blessing of love that does not fail
Gus am bi thu air do shlànachadh
Until you are healed
Ann an gaol do-chrìochnach na Màthar
In the Mother's endless love
May you carry with you the understanding that your overwhelmed heart is not broken but beautifully alive. May you learn to hold your intensity with the same patient compassion that holds forests through storms, that holds rivers through floods, that holds the turning earth through all seasons.
Go gently, beloved child of Earth. The Mother's patient love surrounds you always.
Math fhèin
Well done