We went to the Peace Pagota in Leverett this weekend. I hadn’t been in years! http://newenglandpeacepagoda.org/ It is such a peaceful place to hike to through the woods up to the top of a hill where the huge white Peace Pagota sits. From the website “The New England Peace Pagoda is a place for people of all faiths and backgrounds to come together in peace. The actual Pagoda structure is a memorial containing a relic of the Buddha.”
My older daughter had wanted to go. When she was younger we lived closer to it and we all loved going there. We’d go frequently to see the frogs, tadpoles and fish in the pond and walk around the peaceful grounds. She even had her 7th birthday there, catching the very tame and trusting frogs. Going back this week I felt a feeling of homecoming . A realization that that you can go back. After you get caught up in the whirlwind of life and years pass, you can still go back to what you loved and begin again.
Like the new moon reminds us every month.
Or, really, any time we stop to take a breath.
A temple has grown up near the pagoda in the years we’ve been away. It was beautiful and quiet inside. On the entrance floor was a large container filled with origami peace cranes in bright colors with a note that said, “Please take and share.” The temple was serene yet welcoming and cool on a hot sunny day. I felt so pleased to find a refuge in an old familiar place. And to know that even though things had been happening, growing and changing there all the time I’d been away I (and all) were still welcome. The mellow frogs were there and the fluttering prayer flags were still sending their prayers off in the wind. I felt quietly inspired to start meditating again (or to think about doing seated meditation in a group again) and reminded of why I loved sitting in quiet temples surrounded by others.
For me, parenthood over the last 13 years took me over physically, spiritually and mentally! As my children get older, of course parenting is still consuming, but my girls want to be more separate and independent of me. So now I can start to see glimmers of these places I once loved that I had forgotten. I can begin to go back and draw these things, altered by time and by changes in me, back into my life.
So, here’s to you finding something you loved but let go, to circling around again on this new moon and beginning something that brings you joy, again
Whether it’s starting your meditation practice again.
Remembering to tap when you are stressed out.
Singing an old favorite song out loud! (The children can’t be home for that one. “MOM! STOP!”)
Or even just taking a moment to breathe deep (with or without a wonderful essential oil to aid in relaxing)
Just begin again.
