Dear Friends,
Well… here we are, at the end of January, and thus at the end of this month-long adventure.
I’ll close this month of sharing with a reflection on gratitude from Jack Kornfield:
https://jackkornfield.com/meditation-gratitude-joy/
Gratitude is a gracious acknowledgment of all that sustains us, a bow to our blessings, great and small, an appreciation of the moments of good fortune that sustain our life every day. We have so much to be grateful for.
And just one more guided meditation – this one on gratitude from Larry Yang (~31 minutes):
https://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/107/talk/15248/
When I first had this idea of facilitating a daily meditation email, I didn’t exactly know how it would work, what I would share, or who would want to participate. This labor of love evolved over the course of the month, and the end result is something much bigger than I ever imagined.
This project would not have been possible with out the support and guidance of many. Please allow me to recognize a few here now:
- To Jeanne, our community dharma leader: Thank you for your teaching. Thank you for your encouragement and support. Thank you for your words of guidance, and your gentle suggestions. Even for the week when you were on retreat, I knew I could call upon the wisdom you shared to guide me.
- To my dogs, Reece and Savanna: Thank you for your patience for the many evenings I spent at the computer looking up references and writing emails. Thank you for your snuggles. Thank you for being teachers of how to live in the moment, of forgiveness, of loving completely.
- To my parents, Ida and Andrew, who instilled in me a deep love of learning, and who did all those wonderful things that parents/guardians do for children.
- To the many teachers who have written books, published articles, given talks, and to the various websites who host so many free resources: It’s such a gift to be able to tap an idea into Google’s search and come up with a wealth of material. I’ve tried to cite my sources along the way.
- To everyone who offered words of thanks and shared their reflections with me.
- To the earth, sun, and universe, that generously support each us.
- And to you, dear reader, for following along with these posts and sharing your practice with me in this unique way.
I know everything wasn’t perfect, and whatever harm I have done to you, in thought, word or deed, by way of greed, hatred and delusion, intentionally or unintentionally, please forgive me.
And finally, I’ll close with this wish from Jack’s article:
May you be joyful.
May your happiness increase.
May you not be separated from great happiness.
May your good fortune and the causes for your joy and happiness increase.
With great appreciation,
Andrea G