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Journey Home Meditation

Journey Home Meditation

By: Journey Home Meditation
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Journey Home Meditation is teacher and Companion Michael Franklin's audio and video stream facilitated meditation, contemplation, and exploration. We discuss spirituality, death and dying, conscious living, recovery, and meditation practices. Journeyhomemeditation@gmail.com to reach Michael directly with questions, comments, or inquire about being a guest.

journeyhomemeditation.substack.comJourney Home Meditation
Hygiene & Healthy Living Psychology Psychology & Mental Health
Episodes
  • Finding the Volta
    Jul 17 2025

    Hari Om

    Today I made a mistake. It happens (often). It was a simple mistake, easily remedied, and I was SO HAPPY about it. Because I knew I was okay. This is a big deal for me. I developed a touch of perfectionism, which is a nice word for the ways we rationalize feeling like a failure all the time. It is easy to justify self-criticism if you have a standard for your actions and results that is unattainable. So we do. And we even laud this behavior as one who works with a high work ethic, or other such nonsense. Truthfully, though, we are usually making excuses to judge most of our lives as subpar. So I was very happy to make a mistake and feel good about myself and move on.

    I work through a lot of this in the first part of the sit today, and incorporate some more wonderful work of Andrea Gibson. We come to a crescendo today with a wonderful poem by Angela Franklin. I absolutely love this poem. The layers are as deep as you would care to go, and also work very much as a collection of beautiful sounds and an ode to grief. I personally prefer to dive deep into the work, and it takes me on a journey with each reading. I encourage you to try out digging in a bit as well.

    Thank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Join me for my next live video Mon-Fri 8:30 AM PST in the app.

    All In Love,

    Michael

    Generate Generosity Here



    To hear more, visit journeyhomemeditation.substack.com
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    39 mins
  • Slowing Down
    Jul 16 2025

    Hari Om

    Coming in a bit later this morning, I am reminded what it is to feel rushed, and to function from a place of ‘not enough’. So, as I said to kitchen staff for years at my restaurants: “if you are in a hurry; slow down!”.

    This counterintuitive guideline has saved me from fumbling through more days (and omelettes) than I could count. The notion of slowing down seems antithetical to the operation of a fast-paced kitchen or a fast-paced mind. I promise you, though, it is precisely what is needed. Coutnerintuitive ideas are sometimes the most helpful because our intuition has been taken for such a ride on the trauma train that it is sometimes patterned to keep doing what we have done that got us where we are. We have survived so whatever it is I am doing must be working, right? Sure, could do. And what is also true is there is a way to see that you want to grow out of old patterns and to stop receiving old results. You have to try it different. Here is Andrea Gibson to help us out a bit.

    And then Wendell Berry comes in for the can opening poem Breaking.

    Breaking Wendell Berry Did I believe I had a clear mind? It was like the water of a river flowing shallow over the ice. And now that the rising water has broken the ice, I see that what I thought was the light is part of the dark.

    Did I believe I had a clear mind? What a question. To even begin to believe may already be the muck and mud of a clouded mind! Brilliant. Muck and mud are not so bad, though. Lots of things sprout in the dark.

    Thanks for being here today. Please engage with the posts by commenting and sharing with us a bit of your practice. Three uninterrupted breaths.

    All In Love,

    Michael

    Generate Generosity Here

    Thank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.



    To hear more, visit journeyhomemeditation.substack.com
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    38 mins
  • A Light Becomes Everything
    Jul 15 2025

    Hari Om

    When I rise

    Let me rise like a bird with no regrets.

    Joyfully.

    When I fall, let me fall like a leaf with no regrets.

    Joyfully. - Wendell Berry

    And a love letter from the afterlife from Andrea themself.

    My love, I was so wrong. Dying is the opposite of leaving. When I left my body, I did not go away. That portal of light was not a portal to elsewhere, but a portal to here. I am more here than I ever was before. I am more with you than I ever could have imagined. So close you look past me when wondering where I am. It’s Ok. I know that to be human is to be farsighted. But feel me now, walking the chambers of your heart, pressing my palms to the soft walls of your living. Why did no one tell us that to die is to be reincarnated in those we love while they are still alive? Ask me the altitude of heaven, and I will answer, “How tall are you?” In my back pocket is a love note with every word you wish you’d said. At night I sit ecstatic at the loom weaving forgiveness into our worldly regrets. All day I listen to the radio of your memories. Yes, I know every secret you thought too dark to tell me, and love you more for everything you feared might make me love you less. When you cry I guide your tears toward the garden of kisses I once planted on your cheek, so you know they are all perennials. Forgive me, for not being able to weep with you. One day you will understand. One day you will know why I read the poetry of your grief to those waiting to be born, and they are all the more excited. There is nothing I want for now that we are so close I open the curtain of your eyelids with my own smile every morning. I wish you could see the beauty your spirit is right now making of your pain, your deep seated fears playing musical chairs, laughing about how real they are not. My love, I want to sing it through the rafters of your bones, Dying is the opposite of leaving. I want to echo it through the corridor of your temples, I am more with you than I ever was before. Do you understand? It was me who beckoned the stranger who caught you in her arms when you forgot not to order for two at the coffee shop. It was me who was up all night gathering sunflowers into your chest the last day you feared you would never again wake up feeling lighthearted. I know it’s hard to believe, but I promise it’s the truth. I promise one day you will say it too– I can’t believe I ever thought I could lose you.

    …..

    Thank you for being here, wonderful people.

    I adore you.

    Love, Andrea 🖤

    Rest in Peace with love and gratitude, Andrea Gibson

    All In Love,

    Michael

    Generate Generosity Here



    To hear more, visit journeyhomemeditation.substack.com
    Show More Show Less
    29 mins

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