Yorkshire Dales

I've just pulled over to the side of the road, on my motorbike. I've been riding this morning through the Yorkshire Dales. And somehow today, the vast open landscape is a reflection of the space in my heart. And not just a reflection: what I've been noticing – as I gaze at the beautiful open spaces, the greens and browns of the undulating landscape, and the open sky – what I've noticed is just being in these spaces, I feel myself opening and relaxing into a space of expansion.

Feeling all this, I realise that when I am not in this state, I myself am holding myself in a space of contraction, limiting myself, as if wearing a tight corset.

But today I can breathe deeply relaxedly. And in this space of expansion, the edge of me, the boundary where I end and the rest of existence begins, that boundary begins to get fuzzy. It's not so concrete.

And if for a moment my mind becomes completely still, then that boundary is no more, and this vast spacious landscape is not separate from who I am.

I give thanks for these dales and hills and the open sky.