Guided Meditation: Held in the Lineage of Care
For the reader: Speak slowly, with warmth and steadiness. Pause between paragraphs. Let your voice feel like a safe, protective presence. Approximately 12-15 minutes. (Allow spaciousness during the breaks.)
Image created by Hawthorne Post with the assistance of ChatGPT
Settling into Presence
Everything offered in this grounding is an invitation. Please engage in whatever way feels right to you. You are the sacred steward of your own experience.
Let's begin by arriving. Not in some imagined place of strength, but right here, with whatever this moment brings.
Take three slow breaths. (Pause for breaths)
Notice the places where your body meets support: perhaps the floor beneath your feet, your chair, the air touching your skin.
If tuning into your body isn't accessible today, you might bring awareness to your surroundings—the quality of light, sounds around you, or a presence that feels safe or sacred.
Begin with simply being… present.
Present with the now.
Present with the person that you are.
There's nowhere you need to be but here.
Nothing you need to fix or become.
Here. Now.
With this skin.
These bones.
This heart.
Let yourself arrive more fully.
The Journey Back
And now, with gentleness... let your awareness travel back through time.
Back to when you were small.
Perhaps to a moment of being held—
or simply to the knowledge that someone, somewhere, cared enough for you to be here now.
It might be a memory—or just something imagined.
Perhaps a time when you were held in someone's arms.
In a loving way.
Let yourself rest there for a moment.
Now remember: there were people who survived.
Long enough to create you.
Their lives were stories.
Their lives reached back through the years.
A connected line… from you, back through those who nurtured you, or brought you into being.
Let yourself follow that line—like watching a film moving backward through time.
Each frame: a person who was once a child.
Each child: held in loving arms.
All the way back to when those people—those ancestors or caregivers—were children themselves.
Just pick one.
That person was a baby once.
That person was held with care—in someone's arms.
And the person who held them…
Maybe it was a grandparent.
Maybe someone else.
But someone who survived, who cared enough, to hold that child.
Go back farther.
Feel the links.
The connections.
Each child, once held by someone who cared enough to bring them forward.
Back through grandparents and great-grandparents…
Or nurturers and their nurturers.
As you go back, notice how the world changes.
You may sense shifts in landscape... in climate... in the rhythm of daily life.
Different hands.
Different lullabies.
The same human need for connection.
You may find yourself moving through time and across place—
Back through North America…
Across the sea…
Through the European, African, Asian continents…
And back farther still…
A long line of people, each one holding a child.
Let the movie move faster if it wants.
All the way back…
To the African continent.
To deep time.
Each person, surviving.
Each one caring enough to hold an infant in their arms.
The Return Journey
Now let the movie slow.
Be with this one small child, held in the arms of an ancestor.
And now… begin to move forward again.
Noticing each person's story.
Their strength.
Their mistakes.
Their courage.
Their complexity.
Strength flowing through time.
Flowing from ancestor to ancestor.
From nurturer to nurturer.
From arm to arm, from heart to heart…
All the way forward… to you.
Feel that love.
Feel that determination.
Feel the fullness of those stories.
You can breathe with them.
Choosing What to Carry
And you can choose:
What do you want to hold onto?
What might you set aside, for another time?
As all this strength flows toward you...
Notice what feels nourishing.
What feels true.
Some gifts you can receive fully.
Others you might acknowledge with respect, then set down.
You are not required to carry everything.
You get to choose.
What wisdom wants to come forward with you? (Longer pause)
What can rest here, honored but released? (Longer pause)
What arrives as a gift?
What stirs your curiosity or wonder?
What meets a boundary—you can acknowledge it, and let it stay behind.
Now choose one or two things…
That you want to carry with you, just for today.
Returning Home
And then… gently, gently return.
To your skin.
Your bones.
Your breath.
Your heart.
Perhaps place a hand on your heart.
Feeling yourself—this person, in this time—
Connected to all who came before, yet wholly yourself.
You.
Here.
Now.
If there's anything you'd like to write down or share, you are welcome to.
Beloved, you are whole, holy, and worthy,
Rev. Amy
Companioning soul-weary change-makers becoming rooted, aligned, and alive again.
If you’re seeking a place of care, clarity, and spiritual support — I’ve created a sanctuary for you.
Visit http://AmyBeltaine.info to find resources, reflections, and companionship for the journey.
See Also
See also this blog post on ancestors and death. https://abeltaine.blogspot.com/2017/10/ancestors-voice.html
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