I often struggle to explain what meditation or mindfulness is when I try to tell someone that “I meditate.” I’m almost apologetic because meditation sounds so cerebral and lofty, and it is nothing like that for me.
Then a dear friend told me about her meditation having juice. What a great way to describe my experience. For me, awareness is all about experiencing juice. It is something that happens not just in my mind but in my whole body. Meditation is full of juice. Juice flows through and around my body and mind without barriers.
Juice is such an apt metaphor because of its multiple meanings. The expression brings together a feeling of earthy stickiness and flowing essence. Juice is a common expression I use for the flow of electricity. There is juice in a wire when it is powered up. Someone is juiced when they are drunk out of their mind.
A tree has juice from roots to leaves, its vibrant life force. I experience this juice when I touch its bark, when I listen to its moving leaves, when I hit its roots with my digger. There is juice in a rock that I lift and move to another place. I sense the vibrations within its hard surface, pulsing with energy that has been in motion for billions of years. There is juice in the handle of my cup and in the tea that I sip slowly into my mouth.
I am becoming aware that my ability to feel the juice is not always the same. Much of that, of course, has to do with whether I am paying attention or not. When it comes to other beings, especially humans, it also depends on whether they are able to share their juice. I have juicy connections with certain people, and not so juicy encounters with others. Sometimes we share energy, sometimes not.
I am grateful for my juicy friend who introduced me to the notion of juice. The expression has already infected my vocabulary. It expresses so well what I experience as awareness or mindfulness.