About two months ago, it was rather frigid in Austin at a mere 36F. I was curled up on the couch with a quilt and a good book, but I wanted some silent music in the background. Being too comfortable (and admittedly too lazy) to get up and turn on the stereo, I decided to turn on a selection on Netflix that I’d previously seen my daughter watching. "Fireplace for Your Home" is exactly what it sounds like: Thirty minutes of a crackling fireplace. Episode two has no music, though episode one has Christmas songs heavy on a synthesizer and episode three has instrumental music. Also in the series are "Fireplace for Your Home: Cascade Mountain Stream" (30 minutes) and "Fireplace for Your Home: Winter Wonderland for Your Home" (56 minutes). The “Winter Wonderland” episode has a large variety of rotating photos while the “Cascade Mountain Stream” is just one beautiful and tranquil view.
I settled on episode two so that I would have background noise as I read. Since my asthma prevents me from being around fires, we don’t have fires in my home, but at previous points in my life, I loved watching real fireplace fires. Despite my intention not to watch this mindless distraction, I was lured from my book as an impromptu meditation began for me by watching the fire burning on my television screen. I focused on my core of my body and was given the image of my chakras being cleansed by fire. The fireplace and grill in the film became symbolic of the support I have around me as I work to heal myself from physical and spiritual wounds. I found the blackness of the smoke on the fireplace stones to be powerful and beautiful, not dark at all in a negative sense. That blackness was part of the purification and release of pain.
Continuing to watch the film, the grill holding the fire reminded me of my childhood when my family would burn fires and when I could still sit and watch them in real life since my asthma was not as severe then. I let my vision drift to different areas of the screen, watching and absorbing all the different things happening in the fire. White ash was beginning to form, and yet a deep internal glow continued in the logs. To me, this was representing the deep strength and beauty within each of us even as our bodies became tarnished with age. I began to feel the warm of the fire surrounding me, and I contemplated how the fire of our lives also spreads and glows. The flames on the tv screen were flaring up periodically in an unexpected fashion. This reminded me of how our lives often shift without us expecting them to. The popping of the fire reminded me of the noise that often comes along in our lives to distract us from our higher soul’s goals. The wood eventually began to break apart as it weakened from the flames; this reminded me of the concept of soul fractures, when traumas in our lives can cause deep rifts in our soul. The demise of the wood also led me to reflect on our own mortality and decomposition of our body. As the flames began to go dark at the end of the film, it seemed appropriately symbolic to me of how many of our lives fade out at the end.
Almost anything can become a meditation, and sometimes the unplanned meditations within our lives can be the most powerful. What I thought was going to be background noise ended up being a beautiful experience reflecting on the change in our lives as we approach death.
© 2015 Elizabeth Galen, Ph.D., Green Heart Guidance, LLC
I settled on episode two so that I would have background noise as I read. Since my asthma prevents me from being around fires, we don’t have fires in my home, but at previous points in my life, I loved watching real fireplace fires. Despite my intention not to watch this mindless distraction, I was lured from my book as an impromptu meditation began for me by watching the fire burning on my television screen. I focused on my core of my body and was given the image of my chakras being cleansed by fire. The fireplace and grill in the film became symbolic of the support I have around me as I work to heal myself from physical and spiritual wounds. I found the blackness of the smoke on the fireplace stones to be powerful and beautiful, not dark at all in a negative sense. That blackness was part of the purification and release of pain.
Continuing to watch the film, the grill holding the fire reminded me of my childhood when my family would burn fires and when I could still sit and watch them in real life since my asthma was not as severe then. I let my vision drift to different areas of the screen, watching and absorbing all the different things happening in the fire. White ash was beginning to form, and yet a deep internal glow continued in the logs. To me, this was representing the deep strength and beauty within each of us even as our bodies became tarnished with age. I began to feel the warm of the fire surrounding me, and I contemplated how the fire of our lives also spreads and glows. The flames on the tv screen were flaring up periodically in an unexpected fashion. This reminded me of how our lives often shift without us expecting them to. The popping of the fire reminded me of the noise that often comes along in our lives to distract us from our higher soul’s goals. The wood eventually began to break apart as it weakened from the flames; this reminded me of the concept of soul fractures, when traumas in our lives can cause deep rifts in our soul. The demise of the wood also led me to reflect on our own mortality and decomposition of our body. As the flames began to go dark at the end of the film, it seemed appropriately symbolic to me of how many of our lives fade out at the end.
Almost anything can become a meditation, and sometimes the unplanned meditations within our lives can be the most powerful. What I thought was going to be background noise ended up being a beautiful experience reflecting on the change in our lives as we approach death.
© 2015 Elizabeth Galen, Ph.D., Green Heart Guidance, LLC
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