Peace in My Tummy

A friend asked me yesterday what I feel in my tummy...what is it that I find when I focus my thinking there, on those deep feelings.

For me it was a picture that rose to the surface but also some sensations that went along with it. I felt like I was standing, a cement wall behind me and open space in front of me. A large hand was at my back, pushing me forward. Whatever was in front of me was good, peaceful, free and open. A fresh breeze I've only felt and smelled once before, in a meadow at Tuolumne in Yosemite, about 11 years ago. I can still feel and smell and even taste that breeze as if it happened today. That's what the space ahead of me in this picture was like.



This is a season in my life in which the future is unknown. I'm not sure of much beyond next week, to be honest. But there is a new peace these last few days as I think about that unknown. Can't explain it. I just know, as Julian of Norwich wrote, "All is well, and all manner of things will be well."

What do you find when you focus on your tummy and feel a warmth filling it? What do you "know" in that "knowing place" inside of you in that moment?