This is the first blog of my second year of writing a blog each week. Thank you to those who gave me feedback. The most frequent feedback referred to the length of the blogs. I could also hear my college English teachers talk about my tendency to be wordy. So like I did in my flower garden yesterday, I will cull out as many weeds as possible!
My intention when I began was to share practices and perspectives on mindfulness and meditation that I have learned and that have enriched my life. And also to share practices and ideas from other sources and fields. That intention still rings true.
My intention going forward is to explore big, overarching ideas a couple times a month. In the other blogs, I will reflect on a simple, powerful idea, a metaphor, or a poem. I actually mentioned this last fall but then forgot about it.
Begin again
One of my early teachers used to begin group meditations at a retreat with the simple phrase: Begin again.
Begin again is a phrase I often say to myself when I wake up, especially after a day when I felt beat down by the national or international news, or my chronic fatigue, or something else.
Daily meditation or other contemplative practices
I often say this phrase when I begin to meditate. When I remember that phrase, I generally smile, and the smiling invites me into the meditation with an attitude of relaxed alertness, said by a teacher during a retreat.
Begin again often reconnects me with the basic ideas and practices.
For example, the two questions that generally guide my meditation are:
• What is happening now?
• What is my relationship to what is happening?
Another teacher once said that we have a million mind moments each day. That might be an exaggeration but we are awake about 60,000 seconds a day. Think of all the information coming into our senses in each moment. Part of the challenge in each moment is deciding what to pay attention to: the food in front of us, the words being spoken by our partner, that nagging ache in our stomach or shoulder, wondering when that loud construction noise on the street will stop….
So we forget to be mindful and then we remember and we forget and we remember….
Part of the power of a daily practice is to slow things down to help us to remember. It’s like sitting on a big rock looking out on a clear pond and then a gaggle of boisterous teenagers comes running through the forest, frolicking in the coolness of the water and then moving on. The pond is now cloudy. But stay for a few minutes and you can again see the bottom of the pond. Begin again.
During those many moments of each day
One of the greatest gifts of mindfulness is that it can be done during the day, during some of those 60,000 seconds:
• I can notice a growing irritation and restlessness as I am listening to someone talk, and I can begin again.
• I can feel my body tense up because I am late and this is the third red light in a row. Begin again, maybe even smile.
More than one teacher has noted that it’s those “little moments” strung together that make our lives. I have an image of my childhood when my family strung together cranberry and popcorn garlands for our Christmas tree.
Mother Theresa spoke to this theme: “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” I can hear Thich Nhat Hanh saying it’s those small things that are the beginning of peace.
I believe each us needs an interrelated web of phrases, strategies, and practices to keep meeting the present moment with faith, hope, and presence.