Dear Pogue,

Do you ever know a time when you need to go to a place that’s safe? Not so much a place that’s physically safe but rather a place that’s emotionally safe where no one is going to ask anything of you or put anything on you. In fairness, its usually a place of solitude where all we have is what we bring with us, our thoughts, our emotions, aspirations, disappointments, the things most personal to us.

Once in that place we can just be. We can reflect on our experiences, plan our future in maybe a hundred different variations, turned over and over in our minds. We are free to enjoy the thoughts of a better world. If we’ve come here to escape pain that we are experiencing we can imagine a world free from affliction. The things, the people that have brought pain into our lives are banished.

Our safe place.

I remember when I was younger my safe place was a physical place, my bedroom, in the dark, often filled with music. I would lay on my bed for hours happy in my space. The world was shut out, I was safe with the world shutout and my imagination fuelled to explore possibilities in safety. I still like to sit in the dark, maybe with music, sometimes with a glass of wine. Things move on I guess. But the dark is a constant and continues to hide me from the world and sometimes I need that.

However, as life progressed and I grew, going to my room wasn’t always an option and still needing times when I could feel safe and away from the world I found the need to seek a different sanctuary. That place was within. It is said the greatest journey one can make is not up a mountain or into outer space, rather it is the journey within. This has proved true for me.

The journey starts from a point of acceptance, acceptance that I am not flesh and blood but, rather, I am spirit. This is my truest essence. The body could be likened to a car that carries us on a journey but has a limited life span and gradually fails as it grows older. ‘I’, ‘me’ will continue on beyond the demise of the car. I appreciate it is a little difficult to come to accept but, actually, it is really simple. Not so simple, the transition from acting upon the demands of ego, to instead, becoming reliant on intuition and feeling. To listen to a different voice and find guidance in synchronicity previously seen as coincidence and in the words we hear and the things we see. Not easy and like any art, it takes practice and discipline to master.

But within is a limitless journey into peace and perfection, to a safe place whatever should happen in this life. I guess I have used a meditation of sorts to begin this journey. I must admit to finding meditation hard because my mind is always active and I am constantly returning to the point of focusing on my breathing. It is my love of silence and stillness that spurs me on. My meditation has become a kind of drifting into the place I seek. Some may say I am daydreaming but, whatever, I find myself beginning to move to a place of peace. Is there a right way to meditate? I want to say no because as soon as we prescribe a single method we are in danger of creating a religion with rules and laws. This is about anything but that. It’s about freedom and grace to move towards the eternal, which is where we will go when the car comes to its end.

It’s about going to a place of rightness here and now. I’m not sure ‘rightness’ really lays bare what I’m trying to share but I can’t think of a better way to put it. When I’m there I’m in no hurry to re-engage with the world. It is a safe place, my safe place. It’s like a well fitted jigsaw where all the pieces are there.

I guess we could all do with a safe place from time to time although there are those who would deny it and see the idea as fanciful or a weakness. I’m thinking its a strength and an early glimpse at what’s to come. You must decide for yourself, if indeed you feel the need for a safe place. I’ll leave you to think on that.

Yours, daydreaming with a smile on my face,

Wic.