Dear Friends,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christina Feldman reminds us, “Life brings many joyful moments, yet if our hearts are closed and contracted, these moments do not touch us.” (page 87) Part of our practice is remembering to open our hearts to whatever is present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nature is a great teacher in this regard, as are moments of stillness. Richard Wagamese has some lovely reflections on both of these in his book Embers<\/em>. As snow is falling while I write this email, this passage resonates with me right now:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Started my day shovelling eight inches of fresh overnight snow, and it’s still falling. The beauty of that is the quiet you fall into through a deliberate, conscious act, the mindful joy of watching your energy change things, of feeling your spirit come alive in the effort and the sheer bright-white light of joy that comes from seeing a clear and open path to your home—the place where your dreams reside.<\/p>Richard Wagamese, Embers: One Objibway’s Meditations<\/a><\/em>, page 28<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Christina talks about tasting an inwardly generated joy through cultivating stillness. “To make time and space for stillness is to make time and space for appreciation and gladness.” (page 89)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The stillness of retreat is one way to collect the mind, but lengthy periods of retreat might not be possible for most of us. I have found I can take “mini retreats” in the middle of the day – even if only the pause before pressing send on an email, or a breath before starting a meeting. These deliberate moments allow me to reconnect to my intention, to make space for joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n of course, there are things that get in the way of joy. Christina talks about a couple of themes where we may notice obstructions arise. One is a sense of insufficiency – we might notice tightness about what we do have, and envy over what others have that we want. Another is a sense of comparing – am I better than, worse than, or the same as you. The point is not to push away these obstructions, but to welcome them and learn from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is no shortcut to joy; we do not bypass ourselves on the way to liberation. With mindfulness, kindness, and compassion, we find the courage to meet ourselves, to be intimate with our own hearts, including the most difficult parts of ourselves we are prone to ignore and neglect.<\/p>page 90<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n For a practice today, you may want to check out the “Heartful of Joy” meditation from Emily Horn: And\/or bring some mindful attention to something ordinary today – shovelling snow, like Richard Wagamese did, or anything! I think I’m going to joyfully try a new cookie recipe: Honey Tahini Cashew Cookies Warm wishes, Dear Friends, Christina Feldman reminds us, “Life brings many joyful moments, yet if our hearts are closed and contracted, these moments do not touch us.” (page 87) Part of our practice is remembering to open our hearts to whatever is present. Nature is a great teacher in this regard, as are moments of stillness. Richard Wagamese has some\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[162],"tags":[137,190,84,189],"class_list":["post-523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jan-2019","tag-christina-feldman","tag-emily-horn","tag-joy","tag-richard-wagamese"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":524,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions\/524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/buddhistgeeks\/heartful-of-joy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.theholisticingredient.com\/blogs\/wholesome-food\/honey-tahini-cashew-cookies<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Andrea<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"