Dear Friends,
As we come to the end of this month, I would like offer my gratitude – to the teachings, the teachers, and to each of you who joined in this shared exploration.
Over these past weeks, we’ve explored the elements as a way of meeting experience:
earth as support,
water as flow,
fire as energy and transformation,
air as movement and exchange.
What made this month meaningful, though, was not only the material itself, but the way it was received – through your attention, your reflections, and your willingness to stay with what was unfolding.
I want to express my thanks to the teachers whose talks and guided meditations supported this series, and to the poets whose words helped open language where explanation alone might fall short. Their generosity made it possible to draw from many streams of practice and expression.
I am also grateful for resources that preserve and share these teachings. In addition, I am grateful for the many conditions – seen and unseen – that allow practice to continue in this way.
And most of all, thank you.
Whether you replied with reflections, posted comments, or read quietly along, your presence mattered. Your engagement helped make this a shared inquiry rather than a one-way offering, and I’m deeply appreciative of the care and thought you brought to it.
Some people have asked about offering a donation. I strongly encourage you to support the teachers and sources whose work informed this month, including
- Jeanne Corrigal
- Susie Harrington
- Jaya Rudgard
- Bodhipaksa (Wildmind)
- Dharma Seed
- Audio Dharma
- Sangha Live
- And for my dog Pixie, New Hope Dog Rescue
You are also welcome to send an offering to me by e-transfer to andrea@grzesina.net, or via PayPal. If another option works better, feel free to reach out. Please know that generosity takes many forms, and your participation itself has already been a gift.
While many voices and sources contributed to this month, any errors or shortcomings are entirely my own. For any harm I may have caused, intentionally or unintentionally, in thought, word, or deed, I ask your forgiveness.
I also warmly welcome your feedback, which helps shape future offerings:
https://forms.gle/ettoQur5NW1jUa4J9
You are also welcome to reply to the email or post a comment.
To close, I would like to share a poem that feels well-matched to this month’s spirit of attending, allowing, and trusting the rhythms of experience:
A Blessing for the Inward Way by Tracy Shaw.
It is a quiet blessing – one that honors ebb and flow, inwardness and return – much like the elements themselves.
May whatever steadiness, clarity, or kindness you touched this month continue to unfold in your life.
May the goodness of this practice be for the benefit of all beings.
With gratitude and good wishes,
Andrea
P.S. All posts from this series will be available indefinitely on the blog here:
https://www.grzesina.net/meditation/category/daily-meditation/jan-2026/
dear andrea – i have been moved so by your exploration of the elements, a theme so dear to my heart and practice. thank you. in your honor, i have made a donation to a community group in minnesota where one of my sangha sister sits and lives. may you be happy. peace on earth.
Dear Joy, thanks for being part of this month. I’m grateful for the support you are offering to your sangha sibling. May all be safe and protected.
Thank you very much for this very interesting and helpful series – your well written words, and the resources you shared. All the best to you.
Thank you, Ruth, for joining me this month.
Thank you for all your generous efforts, Andrea. Meditating with these suggestions and insights has helped deepen practice and move toward an initial recognition of felt sense of anatta.
Hi Barb, Thank you for practicing so wholeheartedly this month. I am glad the reflections supported your meditation, and it is wonderful to hear about that emerging felt sense of not-self. These glimpses can be so quietly transformative. I am grateful you were part of the exploration, and thank you for sharing your reflections this month!
Hi Andrea,
Thank-you for this email series. This was a good reminder for me; to take care of these gifts that I have been given, enjoy being part of something larger than self, and to take the time to rekindle the fire that seems to burn so low at times.
I have made a donation to New Hope Dog Rescue.
Thanks Pixie and Andrea!
Hi Twyla, Thank you for your kind words, and Pixie thanks you for your generous donation to New Hope Dog Rescue. I am glad the series was a helpful reminder to care for these precious gifts and to reconnect with that inner fire. I am grateful you were part of this journey.
With much gratitude, Andrea, and heartfelt connections for your dedication, perseverance, and insightfulness.
Your daily teachings this month re-set how my intentions and practices were often top-of-mind on Lilac’s and my daily walks. Winter navigations can be ‘interesting’, so the equanimity your teachings inspired during our walks was, as Bernat Font says, “There’s no such thing as “applying the practice.” There’s only “practicing”.
And another very applicable connection with your teachings and his is:
“Balance is not a static state. You cannot reach it forever, stockpile it, or carry it over. Balance = balancing. It’s always active, even if subtly, it is never ‘finished’. In that active sense, balance is a wonderful description of dharma practice, as far as my experience goes, and is often associated with equanimity (upekkhā), a term I’ve been recently translating as ‘balanced engagement’. ”
Again, much thanks, Andrea, for everything you do with your gifts to help me see the three jewels even / especially on our walks. Lilac and I will be contributing to Pixie’s New Hope.
_/|\_
Hi Rod, Thank you for your thoughtful reflections this month. I appreciate you sharing that the teachings have accompanied you and Lilac on your walks. I love the reminders about practice as ongoing balance and engagement. Pixie thanks you and Lilac for your generosity toward New Hope.
Dear Andrea, Thank you so much for all the work you have done to put this together for us. It has inspired me to write some poems. I couldn’t cover every aspect of the multitude of ways to look at each of these elements especially as they apply to our own loosening of the boundaries around our bodies—a loosening of the feeling of a separate self. The one I had the most trouble with “seeing” in the body was fire. But I did write a poem about it from a different perspective. Thank you! Carol
What Fire Can Do
Carol Kavanagh
Inspired by a quote from John Seed and Joanna Macy
via Andrea Grzesina
You are only a little sparkle at the edge
of the Galaxy, but oh so BIG to us.
No wonder you have been a God
to our ancestors, who bent in adoration,
shaded their eyes from you, for you were
too brilliant to even gaze upon.
At night, our ancestors saw you flashing
green and purple across the sky.
Watched you like we watch a live-stream today.
Quaked when they saw your blaze descend,
light the trees on fire, burn the forest,
send deer streaking, rabbits racing.
You were no push over. Nothing to contend with.
You either sent down your cursed heat
made dry dunes and cracked cakes
or in fairer climes you drew up plants
stood them on their roots
drew up water and sent it back down again.
We had food. NO SMALL POINT.
And campfires to gather ’round—no small pleasure.
How could our ancestors possess your magic?
They discovered little sparks from flint
rubbed sticks together and you sprang up, FIRE.
We have been harnessing you ever since,
for light, heat, transport, bombs, rockets.
Something to contend with, WITH GREAT CARE.
A fire burns in my belly for no further destruction—
for wisdom with fire, for the wholesomeness
of light and warmth and peace.
Wow, thank you Carol, for sharing your beautiful poem and reflections. I love how you have woven fire’s fierce power and gentle warmth into words – a vivid dance of destruction and nourishment, challenge and care. Your poem is a reminder that the elements live not just around us, but within us, inviting both awe and tenderness as we loosen the boundaries of self. I am grateful to read this creative response and your courageous exploration of fire’s many faces.