“Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.” - African Proverb What truer words can be offered than these for this moment? Not being a sailor, I can still identify with the idea of recognizing that challenge can help us strengthen our skills. Smooth sailing is a gift but there can also be gift in challenge, …
These Days of Co-Vid and Designing a Life of (new) Daily Practices
As CoVid19, or the Coronavirus, continues its progression globally, I check the latest updates daily, morning, noon and evening, and try to remember to work in the new habits accordingly. I follow the recommendations - wash hands frequently for 20 seconds while singing “Happy Birthday”, avoid touching surface, avoid touching my face, create distance from …
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“Tasting Mindfulness”
By Jon Kabat-Zinn Have you ever had the experience of stopping so completely, of being in your body so completely, of being in your life so completely, that what you knew and what you didn't know that what had been and what was yet to come, and the way things are right now no longer …
“Clearing”
Do not try to save the whole world or do anything grandiose. Instead, create a clearing in the dense forest of your life and wait there patiently, until the song that is your life falls into your own cupped hands. - Martha Postlewait
Mindfulness….
"is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience. It isn't more complicated than that. It is opening to or receiving the present moment, pleasant or unpleasant, just as it is, without either clinging to it or rejecting it." ~ Sylvia Boorstein
Three Core Practices – Meditation, Gentle Yoga and Yoga Nidra
I was watching the documentary "Heal" a few nights ago and was reminded, once again, of the potential impacts of stress on our health. Watching the various healing techniques in the film reinforced my belief that creating habits in our daily life that can help us reset, recharge and de-stress are as essential as any other …
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Practice is Beginning. Again.
I, like perhaps you too, have a number of resolutions that were lifted up on the wave of energy cresting and launching us into the new year. Some of mine included engaging in daily meditation, eating a silent meal once or twice a week and enjoying a daily mindful morning "sense" walk to open my …
“Mornings at Blackwater” Mary Oliver
For years, every morning, I drank from Blackwater Pond. It was flavored with oak leaves and also, no doubt, the feet of ducks. And always it assuaged me from the dry bowl of the very far past. What I want to say is that the past is the past, and the present is what your …
Creating a Winter Solstice Ritual
Pausing to appreciate the deeper meaning in our lives can be challenging anytime but especially during the rush of holiday activities, celebrations and gift-giving. Making time to reflect on the changing season can feel like just one more task. Ironically, creating time for a ritual can restore us. It helps us shift gears out of …
“I Go Among Trees” by Wendell Berry
I go among trees and sit still. All my stirring becomes quiet around me like circles on water. My tasks lie in their places where I left them, asleep like cattle. Then what is afraid of me comes and lives a while in my sight. What it fears in me leaves me, and the fear …
