Having to Surrender.......

Once a month, I spend time with a group of men in prison and we meditate together.
It's an amazing experience for me.
They are incarcerated for many different reasons I don't really know of and it matters not to me!
I see their beautiful souls and create a space for them to see their own.

Some know of meditation, some have practiced it and some have never heard of it.
They mostly come to have something to do, to pass the time and some really want to feel more peaceful inside.
I share different ways to meditate, sometimes we watch a video, we talk and we practice.
They seem very grateful and are willing to bring this new way of being into their day to day life.
I can see the resistance sometimes, but that is true of most beginners of meditation.

This experience reminds me again of my own beginning practice that felt like torment.  Sitting still, quieting my mind seemed impossible to me many years ago, now I hunger for it.

One of the men made a very powerful statement the other day.
I brought a provocative idea into their midst. We are all imprisoned somehow!  True freedom is found within!
They seemed interested.
At the end of our time together one of the men spoke up very clearly.
He told us that he knows he is in jail, but he also knows that there is a part of him that isn't and he wants to get to that part!
There was a silence, something happened.  I think the others really heard it.

So, all that's next then is to surrender.
Maybe in prison it is easier, there is nothing else to do...............