This week: Thoughts on a trustworthy mind, a few salient resources and an upcoming offering.
How are you today. Over here we’re still semi-recovering, finalizing arrangements to bury James’ mom soon, just as she’d wished, a natural burial in a local cemetery.
Recent glimpses of inward trust are flowing in. Heard my teacher tell her story of falling ill with temporary blindness as a small girl, discovering her inner life. Recalling the fearsome darkness of bedtime transmuting into comfort, breathing myself to sleep, learning who I could be for myself.
Then tracing the mirth my teacher is asking us to remember, even amidst the current catastrophe, something shifts within me—a familiar, sweet mischief. Simultaneously out of my depths and completely at home in her words, furiously scribbling notes for my future self. I commit to sharing them here, unfinished as they are.
A bright pink sunset peeks out from under periwinkle clouds. Old emotional occlusions dissipate as the warm breeze blows through. I land on a poem from the legendary Izumi Shikibu.
Watching the moon
at dawn,
solitary, mid-sky,
I knew myself completely:
no part left out.
Is this the direction of dedicated practice—knowing myself completely—including everything?
Helen Frankenthaler, Sentry, 1976
Related: An invitation for you, followed by thoughts on a mind of safety, a podcast to invigorate your practice and the replay of our Q1 Gathering.
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Upcoming Class with Ally Bogard, March 7th
The Path of the Broken Hearted: Experiential Practice to Meet Grief with Grace.
In this supportive time together, redefine suffering in order to face the vicissitudes of life with steady practice, to care for yourself and our shared heart. What is broken-heartedness but an honest meeting of the circumstances of our lives, allowing our hearts to break along with our carefully-crafted illusions? Enter into this dialogue of care, allowing the persona to drop away, revealing the tenderness that underlies this moment, and then the next. Expect seated meditation, light movement, talks and closing forum. Details and registration here.
If you have financial restriction, reply here and I’ll send your link for a special rate.
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