Jim Murphy facilitates Friday Mindfulness this week.  I am away on Monhegan Island, Maine, sending lovingkindness to you across the distance.  

I’m not sure whether tomorrow’s practice will connect with Pema Chodron’s How We Live is How We Die, the book we have been reading will from which we will soon move on.  This will be up to Jim and, in the open ended and openhearted way of Friday Mindfulness, up to everyone who shows up and joins in.

Unpredictability and not-knowing are part of the human experience.  We may join in mindfulness practice as a means of taking good care of ourselves.  We may be looking for safe and welcoming space, an opportunity to settle down and be kind to ourselves in a world that feels too loud or too much.  I hope all M+ activities – Friday Mindfulness especially – are safe and welcoming.  

Yet mindfulness practice is only helpful if it helps us take good care in the midst of whatever is unsettling and difficult to deal with.  The aim of good practice isn’t escape or avoidance; it’s the exercise and expansion of our heart muscles.  Can we extend openheartedness to the parts of the world that are resistant to love?  Can we create safe and welcoming spaces “out there” where safety and hospitality are in short supply?  We might come to Friday Mindfulness needing these things for ourselves.  I hope so, yes!  We might take great comfort in sharing something good, together.  Yes, again! But our practice is only helpful if we’re also willing to risk a little bit of discomfort, getting to know what we would rather hold at arm’s length. Yes?!

Thank you, Jim, and thank you all who share this practice.  Enjoy the time together!