Morning Meditation

If New Amsterdam, aka New York, is known as the city that never sleeps then its predecessor can equally share this moniker. Amsterdam teems with activity around the clock. In my experience I cannot recall a time when the streets are devoid of traffic and life. Early this morning I walked the streets to battle my jetlag, and I believe I may have stumbled onto a time when the sleepless city actually slows down.

Like most living organisms we give little attention to life giving art of breathing (unless we are deprived of it) but when we become attentive there is a possibility for something to shift. There is something calming and rejuvenating in the art of drawing breath then releasing it. As I could hear my own footsteps, I became aware of that a powerful gathering and releasing was taking place in the city. I discovered a cadence that I would ascribe as a meditation.

Monitoring the ebb and flow of breath was practiced by Eastern mystics then Biblical Prophets to helped them still the mind’s constant clamor and focus their entire being on the essential. This morning I observed the city exhales all she endured the previous week and slowly draw in what will sustain her through the next. The constant activity usually drowns out baseline of the city. Most days Amsterdam’s pavement is assaulted by massive amounts of people on foot, on bikes, in autos and such, but now the traffic is sparse. Joggers, city workers and a few incidental tourists are her only company - if one listens carefully you can hear her breathing in relief.

She exhales those weary early departures who trek begrudgingly to the train station, who move onward to something else; she inhales the bright-eyed “early bird gets the worm” tourists and new arrivals who rush to take in the “Amsterdam experience” while their energy is at a premium. She exhales last night’s frenetic antics of the red-light district, coffee houses and clubs that make her infamous; she inhales a serene calmness that has allowed her to endure and carry the deep love of intimacy, kindness and innovation characteristically found among the Dutch. She exhales the garbage, confusion and loneliness of those seeking something they believe she can manufacture in place love and acceptance; she inhales the clean, pristine, hope of something new and life giving as her streets are made clean by the diligent hardworking street cleaners.

As I think about this imagery I notice my own breath changing, becoming more synchronized with the city I find in the early hours of daylight. I slow as she has slowed to focus my thoughts and release my cares, I feel myself I shadowing meditative flow of the morning. As my chest rises to take in the crisp morning air I am graced with a peace and understanding that helps me to listen and see – I struggle to hold it in but then I am forced relinquish and seek replenishment. I pass by the flower mart, I breathe in and watch the slow careful process as shop keepers turn the cranks to open their booths to receive the days flowers, much the way a waking infant opens his eyes in anticipation of seeing a loved one; then I release my desire to sleep as I slow to watch the city shake of the night before. As I pass a subterranean window I breathe in quickly - I am startled as by the upward stare of a woman wearing lingerie with one leg propped on a chair as her TV spits out the news in the background; from deep within I release a smile that I hope cuts through my astonishment and her cold stare.

Each time my lungs fill, I mirroring more of the city’s mediation. I find myself strengthen to endure much, like she has, as my heart becomes more in tune Amsterdam’s own heartbeat. The simultaneous competing rhythms of our breaths and heartbeats underscore baseline that is the song of love that is being written. We are falling for each other. I reintroduce myself to the city this morning, I tell her I am back and ready to offer my love, in kind Amsterdam welcomes me to into the rushing waves of her own meditative inhalation. She offers to take me in deeply and fully, I let go and dive deep.