{"id":855,"date":"2020-12-31T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-31T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/?p=855"},"modified":"2023-07-27T16:57:47","modified_gmt":"2023-07-27T22:57:47","slug":"december-31-2020-welcome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/december-31-2020-welcome\/","title":{"rendered":"December 31 &#8211; Welcome!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Dear Friends,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The practices of mindfulness and meditation have been such incredible supports for me in the challenges of life, including 2020! That is what has motivated me to study and practice and share with others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the sixth year I have offered this daily email in January, and I&#8217;m honoured that you have chosen to join me in this iteration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This year, I am going to be gathering and sharing resources and practices that will be useful when I have an opportunity to teach to a six-week introductory training in mindfulness course later this spring. It is my hope that you will find this useful in establishing and strengthening your own practice, and that together, we will plant seeds of kindness and wisdom in ourselves and in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s a poem to invite us into this month together:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><span style=\"font-size: revert; color: initial;\">There is no such thing as a &#8220;safe space&#8221; &#8212;<\/span><br>We exist in the real world.<br>We all carry scars and have caused wounds.<br>This space<br>seeks to turn down the volume of the world outside,<br>and amplify voices that have to fight to be heard elsewhere,<br>This space will not be perfect.<br>It will not always be what we wish it to be<br>But<br>It will be our space together,<br>and we will work on it side by side.<\/p><cite>Untitled Poem by Beth Strano<br><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facinghistory.org\/resource-library\/untitled-poem-beth-strano\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.facinghistory.org\/resource-library\/untitled-poem-beth-strano<\/a><br>See also<br><a href=\"https:\/\/onbeing.org\/programs\/jennifer-bailey-and-lennon-flowers-an-invitation-to-brave-space\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/onbeing.org\/programs\/jennifer-bailey-and-lennon-flowers-an-invitation-to-brave-space\/<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>All the emails from this year (and previous years) will be archived to this blog:<br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/\">https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation<\/a><br>Comments are open on the newer posts, and you are invited to share your thoughts and feedback on the posts, or simply reply by email too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am grateful for the mentorship, guidance, and support from <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.jeannecorrigal.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Jeanne Corrigal<\/a>, the guiding teacher for the <a href=\"https:\/\/saskatooninsight.com\/wp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/saskatooninsight.com\/<\/a>, and a participant in the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dharma.org\/teachers\/teacher-training-program\/\" target=\"_blank\">IMS Teacher Training Program<\/a>. I also wish to acknowledge guidance from many other special teachers, including <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/markcoleman.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Mark Coleman<\/a> and <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/martinaylward.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Martin Aylward<\/a>, who are leading the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mindfulnesstraininginstitute.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">mindfulness teacher training program<\/a> in which I am enrolled, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/desertdharma.org\/retreats\/teachers.html\" target=\"_blank\">Susie Harrington<\/a>, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/alokavihara.org\/about\/nuns-community\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ayya Anandabodhi<\/a>, and online teachers including <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/linktr.ee\/vincehorn\" target=\"_blank\">Vincent Horn<\/a> and facilitators of various <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.buddhistinquiry.org\/online-programs\/\" target=\"_blank\">BCBS online courses<\/a>, as well as numerous teachers who generously make their teaching available through <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dharmaseed.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Dharma Seed<\/a>, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.audiodharma.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Audio Dharma<\/a>, books, and other resources. I am also fortunate to have admirable friendships with other practitioners in the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/saskatooninsight.com\/wp\/events\/2018-events\/living-the-dharma-program-2018\/\" target=\"_blank\">Living the Dharma Program<\/a>, co-led by Susie Harrington and Jeanne Corrigal. (Any errors or misunderstandings are my own.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stay tuned for the first email\/post tomorrow!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With warmest wishes,<br>Andrea Grzesina<br><a href=\"mailto:andrea@grzesina.net\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">andrea@grzesina.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Friends, The practices of mindfulness and meditation have been such incredible supports for me in the challenges of life, including 2020! That is what has motivated me to study and practice and share with others. This is the sixth year I have offered this daily email in January, and I&#8217;m honoured that you have chosen to join\u2026 <span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/december-31-2020-welcome\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/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":[238],"tags":[32,36,266,267,70],"class_list":["post-855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jan-2021","tag-jeanne-corrigal","tag-mark-coleman","tag-martin-aylward","tag-micky-scottbey-jones","tag-welcome"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855","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=855"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1669,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855\/revisions\/1669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}