Early spring; daffodils are giving way to tulips, different shades and textures of green are everywhere, forsythia has come and gone, and yes we can observe a thin veil of pollen on some surfaces.
What a wonderful time for awareness! What a wonderful time to take a step back, as I often do, to bring a beginner’s mind to our practice, to awareness, to the present moment. What is awareness? When is the best time to practice? Is succumbing to the intoxicating aromas and sights of nature, awareness? Mindfulness; awareness is that space, that incredible place that is always accessible… where we pause during an intense thought or conversation, where we breathe into that constriction or tightening sensation, where we hold ourselves, the people we love, and the world in lovingkindness. Just now.
In Jon Kabat Zinn’s book, Mindfulness for Beginners, we read;
Inhabiting Awareness Is the Essence of Practice
The challenge of mindfulness is to be present for your experience as it is rather than immediately jumping in to change it or try to force it to be different.
* * *
Whatever the quality of your experience in a particular moment, what is most important is your awareness of it. Can you make room for awareness of what is unfolding, whether you like what is happening or not, whether it is pleasant or not? Can you rest in this awareness, even for one breath, or even one in-breath, before reacting or try to escape or make things different? Inhabiting awareness is the essence of mindfulness practice, no matter what you are experiencing, whether it arises in formal meditation or in going about your life. Life itself becomes the meditation practice as we learn to take up residency in awareness- the essential dimension of our being that is already ours but whti whatich we are so unfamiliar that we frequently cannot put it to use at the very times in our lives when we need it the most.
But if, through bringing an ongoing intentionality and gentle discipline to both formal and informal practice, mindfulness were to function increasingly as our “default setting” so to speak, our baseline condition that we come back to instinctively when we lose our emotional balance momentarily, then it could serve as a profoundly healthy and reliable resource for us in challenging times.
Gratefully, awareness is also connection…
"For Belonging", by John O'Donohue
May you listen to your longing to be free.
May the frames of your belonging be generous enough for your dreams.
My you arise each day with a voice of blessing whispering in your heart.
May you find a harmony between your soul and your life.
May the sanctuary of your soul never become haunted.
May you know the eternal longing that lives at the heart of time.
May there be kindness in your gaze when you look within.
May you never place walls between the light and yourself.
May you allow the wild beauty of the invisible world to gat
her you, mind you, and embrace you in belonging.
Thank you for sharing your precious time with us.
Enjoy your weekend,
Laurie