Sitting in the Sun

That's what I call it: sitting in the sun. Others call it meditation, and that's fine too.

Meditation is simple in concept and astonishingly difficult to do.

Two main points:

1. Sit still

2. Keep errant thoughts at bay, concentrate on a single thing, like a flower, a candle flame or, as we do in Shakespeare Club, a sun setting over an ocean.


"Feet on the floor."

But mine don't reach!

"Some feet can dangle above the floor, that's okay. Hands on lap. Eyes closed...closed...shut — all the way, Laci — and deep breath. Fill the tummy...hold it, hold it, hold it and let it go."

I carry around a photo of an evening sun setting over a peaceful ocean.

"Take that sun and place it right in the middle of your forehead, and inhale. The waves come in....Exhale, the waves go out. Inhale, water in....Exhale, water out...."

Some eyes try to stay shut and others peek open to see where I am.


"Your brain is the mommy and daddy of your body. Your brain says, 'Stay still....No fidgety fingers, not right now....Be still, feet....I am the boss of me....Inhale, the waves come in....Exhale, the waves go out....' "

When they do it, they do it all the way. Shoulders drop, quiet reigns, anxiety disappears and their faces register peace as if their brains are floating in a far-off galaxy.

It has been said children are struggling with heretofore-unexperienced levels of stress. Testing, divorce. Where's the money? Where will we live? Homework, middle school, high school, college. And it starts up again: Where's the money? Where will we live?

If sitting in the sun can ready twenty-four kids for a production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," imagine what it could do before a test, in the midst of a schoolyard brawl, or as peer pressure mounts and we don't have what we need. Where's the calm?

Imagine.

CHILDREN'S WRITES: A Journal Entry

I think William Shakespear had been through alot and when his son died I thought that was tragic. And then his thetre that he built was distroyed by a cannon. I feel bad for William Shakespear.

—Sabrina, 4th grade