YOUR INNER FLUTE

“She played on the situation as if on a flute”.  Witold Gombrowicz

Spirit derives from (s)peis- "to blow" (source also of Old Church Slavonic pisto "to play on the flute").  - from Etymology Online

We know the “column” of breath goes in and out of the body.  When we breathe in fully and consciously, the vibrating column of breath seems to go down from the head toward one’s feet. Then, breathing out, we feel that air column from the lower body taking a similar route up through us then exhaled out through the mouth and nose.  It is the greatest surety of our aliveness – re-spiration, in-spiration – all pointing us to the vital source of spirit.

Feeling that today, I experienced that column of air more clearly than ever before. I had the insight that the column is not unlike the vibrating, spiraling column of air that travels through a flute when it is played. The flute has padded keys which cover and uncover holes to change the pitch of the instrument.

Given that experience and imagery, I strikingly saw each center of the bodymind (aka ‘chakras’) along that air column like the holes of a flute.  Each one may be open or closed, depending on whether the key is being pressed down or not. We may indeed feel which notes of our inner flute are held closed or open. Exploring ourselves with breath and loving attention, we can see and feel how we can open each up.

It will help the music of our being.

“I have grown to love that place between stimulus and response where, if you remember to breathe, you can change.”  -  Julie Reynolds

Photo by Eugene Harris from “Family of Man”