mfh Posted June 8, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2013 Meditation Masters “From time to time, to remind ourselves to relax and be peaceful, we may wish to set aside some time for a retreat, a day of mindfulness, when we can walk slowly, smile, drink tea with a friend, enjoy being together as if we are the happiest people on Earth.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh From Facebook Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfh Posted June 10, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 10, 2013 http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/meditation-guru-tara-brach-is-calm-eye-of-washingtons-stress-filled-storm/2013/06/09/973c0a4e-d114-11e2-9577-df9f1c3348f5_story_2.html# A great piece in the Washington Post about author, meditation teacher, Buddhist teacher, clinical psychologist Tara Brach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enna Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 Well, I need to meditate tonight. Found this on FB when checking my page - from Tara Brach "Our mindfulness practice offers us the opportunity to pause and rediscover the space of presence. When we stop charging forward and open to what’s here, there’s a radical shift in our experience of being alive. As we touch into this space of hereness, we access a wisdom, a love and a creativity that are not available when we’re on our way somewhere else. We are home, in our aliveness and our spirit." ~ adapted from Radical Acceptance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfh Posted June 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 17, 2013 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/17/meditation-in-action-mindful-cooking_n_3442749.html?ir=GPS+for+the+Soul How to practice Mindfulness in your kitchen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enna Posted June 18, 2013 Report Share Posted June 18, 2013 I loved this link you sent about mindfulness in the kitchen, Mary. So today I put it into practice since I'm having company from out-of-town for a few days. There will be 2 children!! I decided to make some oatmeal/raisin and peanut butter cookies - yum - I felt the dough get soft and warm in my hands as I mixed everything together - I pressed the peanut butter dough with a fork like my mom used to do - I spooned out just enough dough to make a good sized cookie and placed it on a cookie sheet - I did the peanut butter cookies first because i like the delicious smell of the peanut butter. I sat and read a book (I can't remember which one) while the cookies were baking. The smell went into my nostrils and i actually thought i was eating them because I could taste then while they were baking. The oatmeal/raisin cookies were made in the same way - for these I like to just take a spoonfull of the dough and place it on the cookie sheet and let it form its own shape. When we start to smell the oatmeal and raisin mix you can imagine the softness of the raisin in the warm cookie. Tasting is the final test. Cold milk goes good with them. They are suitable for company tomorrow. I think I will stop at the cookies or this could go on for thousands of words! Anne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feralfae Posted June 18, 2013 Report Share Posted June 18, 2013 Anne, I am having so much fun reading about your mindfulness experience with baking the cookies that I would enjoy another thousand words! Delightful/delicious narrative! Thank you. Ahem ... now you will feed them sugar and they can get hyper. Do yourself a favor and strictly limit the cookies for your own peace of household and calm. I had to wean my grandson off sugar when he was eight. He has come to love fresh fruit and popcorn. Observing him, it was obviously contributing to a change in his energy and outlook when he ate as few as two cookies. And I loved baking cookies for him! But they were not good for him. Or maybe one as a treat every few days. And I am longing for a cookie, which I am not allowed, but can dream of tasting and smelling, too. Thank you for sharing the richness and deliciousness of your experience. *<twinkles>* fae Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kayc Posted June 18, 2013 Report Share Posted June 18, 2013 This reminds me about a prayer class I taught. Each week brought a different segment, and this one week it was to show how when we pray, we become more pliable. I started the class out closing their eyes to focus...and each of them held a piece of clay in their hands. There was no talking...just time for them to feel the clay, move it around, etc. When we discussed what we'd observed, mention was made that the longer the clay was held, the softer it got, the easier it was to mold, etc. And so we are in God's hands. It's interesting to note what we notice when we are mindful...be it clay or cookie dough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feralfae Posted June 19, 2013 Report Share Posted June 19, 2013 Dear Kay, Thank you. So true. And when we are mindful of being held, our hearts can soften in the compassionate love with which we are held. And we can learn to see beauty even through the tears. And the G*d lifts us up and we see from a new perspective of healing, I think. Beautiful meditation, this one of clay that you are teaching to the future. You are such a blessing here in this Tribe. Thank you. Blessings, *<twinkles>* fae Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfh Posted June 19, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 19, 2013 Kay, I really like the clay experience you provided for folks. I have a special place in my heart for clay. I spent a lot of time sculpting with clay many years ago and found it very healing. Have not unpacked those pieces in a long long time but I can picture each one and remember how it felt to feel the clay take shape in my hands. And yes, fae, our own hearts soften and become compassionate as we are held in love. Mary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfh Posted June 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2013 This is meditation also. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gregg-mcbride/stop-smell-roses_b_1582684.html?ir=GPS+for+the+Soul Stop and smell the flowers.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartyT Posted June 23, 2013 Report Share Posted June 23, 2013 Yes, Mary ~ and along those same lines: So Many Roses, So Little Time: A Mindfulness Practice My Dog Taught Me ♥ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfh Posted June 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2013 Yes, Marty. Bentley has taught me to be mindful on our walks. We do not see too many roses but he finds things to smell...most the traces of other animals, I think. I think he knows now that initially we walk briskly and on the way home he gets to lollygag, smell every dog who has ever traversed our path...I swear all the way back to horse and buggy days. While he smells, I watch the trees sway in the breeze or listen to sounds. But he is the one who slowed me down...as you know dogs live totally in the moment...what a teacher he is. Peace Mary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enna Posted June 23, 2013 Report Share Posted June 23, 2013 This I so believe. Thank you for your post, Mary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kayc Posted June 23, 2013 Report Share Posted June 23, 2013 I was thinking of this today as I took time out of my busy day to take Arlie to the park...he LOVES to smell and sniff everything, and he just quivers with excitement...I enjoyed watching him and how caught up in the moment he gets...such inspiration to us all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfh Posted June 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2013 I agree, Kay...Bentley could smell 5 sq inches of grass for many minutes...I test this sometimes to see how long he will smell just one spot...a long long long time. Nothing else exists. I will attempt to put a 56 second video here about a kitten who is totally in HIS moment. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10200548133719795&set=vb.1052058797&type=2&theater Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enna Posted June 23, 2013 Report Share Posted June 23, 2013 And Marty, I really did learn this from Benji...he stops and smells...does he ever smell...everything. It is not only my walk it is his too. I see things I have really never paid attention to - like the shape of all the different leaves on the trees, the different shades of grass, the shapes of all the flowers, the different colored stones in peoples yards - we have mostly rock landscape around me. And so much more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enna Posted June 23, 2013 Report Share Posted June 23, 2013 This was on my FB page today added by Jan. Thank you for this beautiful piece, Jan. Poetry by Pablo Neruda's 'Leaning into the Afternoons.' What a wonderful way to start the day's meditation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfh Posted June 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2013 Anne and Jan, thank you for this lovely poem so well depicted by the video. It is quite powerful. One of the reasons (one of many) that I hope to get to my niece's wedding in September is that they live 2 blocks from wild ocean...rock beaches and sand beaches that I have walked many many times over the years before Bill, with Bill and now after Bill. I feel a sense of wholeness at the water's edge in addition to a myriad of memories. We came from the ocean and salt water courses through us and at the ocean I feel my roots and destiny. Thanks for this. Mary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartyT Posted June 23, 2013 Report Share Posted June 23, 2013 I really don’t know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it’s because in addition to the fact that the sea changes, and the light changes, and ships change, it’s because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have, in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea – whether it is to sail or to watch it – we are going back from whence we came. ~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfh Posted June 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2013 Oh, Marty, I do love that quote by Kennedy. It puts into words exactly how I feel. The sound so many use in meditation (aum) the great "om" came from the sound of the sea. When I stand at Bass Rocks, Cape Hedge beach, Halibut (Haul about) Point and so many other places on Cape Ann, I can almost feel myself as a part of the water itself. Thank you for that quote...I had forgotten about it. My brother in law (who captains a tug boat that goes from NYC to Puerto Rico) emailed me yesterday from his ship to reach out. It feels like a bit of healing is happening with all of us. And I must accept it and allow it and let go of the pain brought into my life by their inability to comprehend my own pain. My BIL is licensed to captain any ocean going vessel and has but always wanted to be a captain of a tug boat as opposed to the huge vessels he has sailed. He reports to us that he feels most at home when he is on the water. He gets in this week and will spend a week on a solo schooner trip that he does once a year. I think we are all drawn to the ocean and believe me, Lake Michigan, just does not do it It is the salt air as much as the vastness of the ocean and our roots that draws me. I even think on RARE occasions of moving there but I would have to know that my family relationships there are stable as I have a community here that would be tough to leave. The town where my sister lives and my two nieces (one marrying another sea man in September) is an art colony, fishing village, picturesque on the ocean and I know a lot of people there as I used to spend a LOT of time there. So who knows...where roads will lead. I doubt mine will lead there for many reasons but visiting works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfh Posted June 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2013 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VtG8No-MMOM#at=22 Backpack meditation....easy...short...called backpack as you can practice it anywhere, anytime... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuKbuqo50-c Anne, this is especially for you....40 minutes of soothing music and crickets....and scenery...good background as you read or whatever.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kayc Posted June 23, 2013 Report Share Posted June 23, 2013 I had to watch Mary's kitten video over and over again, that was great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfh Posted June 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2013 I did feel sorry for the kitten but it was so funny. I watched it several times also. Poor kitty....he was being mindful...of 1 of the critters only Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enna Posted June 23, 2013 Report Share Posted June 23, 2013 Thank you for the beautiful music, Mary. I managed three things while listening: I read from Pema Chodron’s book: Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change. In one of the chapters she talks about being ‘fully present, feeling your heart, and greeting the next moment with an open mind.’ It’s accepting what your situation is now, claiming your courage, your kindness, your strength in what is happening in your life right now. Letting my health situation be what it is, trying not to label it good or bad – just letting it be there as it is - I do not give myself the same warmth I show to others and this will be something I’ll have to learn. Perhaps becoming better at meditation I’ll improve. With Benji always under my feet he gets his massages daily with my feet. It’s amazing how he manages to roll in just the right direction as if he’s saying – do this spot now! And, yes, I dozed off for I don’t know how long while listening to the music. I call this ‘being present in the moment’ – relaxation comes naturally to me when I actively participate in the musical notes of any good music. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfh Posted June 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2013 So glad you liked it. And who better to read than Pema... and a nap to boot....good for you. I am now working on labels for my paint chart. Then I have another chart to do...but not today. Another former client called...have not seen her in years...so I will see her tomorrow and also my new computer guy...to do some stuff I can not repair. Ten years ago I would have figured it out somehow...between Bill and me...but now...I call my geek. Then a concert in the evening...which I may skip as the music is not exactly what i like. we shall see how tired i am. Then three days of nothing scheduled. New for me in the past 2 months or so. I am starting to enjoy solitude again.... Take care, Mary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now