When I was a little girl I had a secret thing I did before I went to sleep. I imagined each person in my mind and sent them love and well wishes.
I also worried so much about them. I worried that they would die. That I would die. That I would never see them again. That I would never fall asleep. And like so many of these child worries they were all completely true and totally impossible.
But recently I have been practicing a lot of loving-kindness meditation. I practice it at the New York Times as I read one heartbreaking story after another. I practice it as my youngest child curls into a comma in my lap to be close. I practice it with myself as I find myself unrecognizable in new ways.
And in ways that maybe some of you recognize or know as we meander through whatever stage of navigating the pandemic we are at I practice it as I see people who I haven’t been with in a long time. I send them loving kindness because I need it myself as I notice them changed, as I don’t know their lives anymore, as we fumble through finding each other again.
I also and maybe most vulnerably and honestly practice it as a way of shifting. The shift from what has felt like a long time of shoring up, to something more like the pull and push of tides. Where and what lets us let in each others love? How do we let it touch us and run over us? And how do we let it and come and go as it is? Bumpy, uneven, and strange.
In two weeks, I’d like to invite you to come move and sit with me and explore this. This will be the first of the drop-in donation based moving and sitting practices. It will be held on zoom and you will need to register here to get the link.
Come to the first pop-up of Being and Breathing! You must register to come but it is donation based and I can’t wait to see some of you there.
July 28th 8-9 am
Get some Full Moon Tea! I have some really exquisite tea, also very delicious iced whenever the sun decides to shine again. It is a great point of return in this moment of the world to heat up water and add plants to it to presence yourself!
Consider signing up to support this work of writing and investigating aliveness! And do it with me through the meditation series. Everyone who is a paid subscriber will have access to a growing library of meditations.
These things are bringing me alive
-Wild roses at the beach.
-Naps whenever I can find a moment for one.
-This is amazing poem. Things I didn’t know I loved -Nazim Hikmet
Thank you for the reminder!