Karen Maezen Miller – Beguine Again

Jun182018 by Donna PierceNo Comments

Mindful Monday: Neither past nor future

awareness, Buddhism, meditation, mindfulness

Quiet the narration in your head, even for a moment, and see for yourself that life is LIFE, and not one minute of it is a retelling or a foretelling. -- Karen Maezen Miller Are you noticing the narration in your head? ... for Mindful Monday ... Source: Miller, Karen Maezen. Hand Wash Cold: Care Instructions For An Ordinary Life. Novato, CA: New World Library, p. 45. Photo credit: "Washing on the line in Cinque Terra," rainy city, 2018.

Mindful Monday: How does it feel to be free?

awareness, Buddhism, Freedom, mindfulness

On Feeling Invisible "Because quite a few of us are feeling this way: "Q: I'm feeling more invisible these days. I don't know if it's a function of being 40 and a woman in this culture, if it's a function of race, or if I'm just feeling more invisible because my kids are getting older and they're gone more. "Sometimes the invisibility feels good. I can do as I please and no one knows where I am. Other days, the invisibility feels lonely. Then I talk too much to the Trader Joe's cashier. "Have you had this feeling? "A: Of course I've had that feeling. It is the feeling of freedom. It signals a transition in our life. No longer is our self-image tied up in the attention paid to us by others. I can attest that you are in fact visible even though no one wants anything from you. ...

Mindful Monday: A thousand eyes of wisdom

awareness, Buddhism, mindfulness

"... I wrote about the suffering of my own childhood and my years of feeling isolated and unhappy. When he read it, my friend Bob Thurman said, 'You should never be ashamed of the suffering you've been through.' His comment really surprised me. In that moment, I realized how much subtle shame I had been carrying without realizing it. "Bob was passing along a message he'd received years earlier, after he'd lost his left eye in an accident. His teacher at the time, a Mongolian monk named Geshe Wangyal, had told him, 'Never be ashamed of what happened to you. You have lost one eye but gained a thousand eyes of wisdom.' "I do think it's too simplistic to say that such awful experiences should be considered gifts. But acknowledging that a gift can emerge from pain does not mock the pain ...