The Yogabliss, Your Heart Life on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning. Today we explored two precious gifts of mindfulness:  the experience of wholeness and the ability to hold grief and joy at the same time.  On this Juneteenth day we listened to poet J. Drew Lantham’s beautiful poem,

Joy Is the Justice We Give Ourselves.  May his spirit of generosity touch every heart.

We heard from hospice carer, teacher and author Frank Ostaseski’s book The Five Invitations.  The passage encourages us to let go of our striving and to embrace our full humanity.

We heard Jennifer Williamson’s  beautiful poem, I Am Enough. Jennifer, a suicide loss survivor, offers grief support through her website, Healing Brave.

We heard from philosopher writer Terry Patten’s essay, A New Republic of the Heart.  You can learn more about Terry and his book of the same name at his web-site.

You can learn more about poet, professor and writer J. Drew Lantham by listening to his On Being interview with Krista Tippett:  Pathfinding Through the Improbable.  Check out his memoir The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature at your local library.

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The Yogabliss, Your Heart Life on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning. We explored mindful embodiment and listening for the “baseline symphony” of our inter-being:  the body’s landscape of ease.  In this landscape we can use our “companion calls” to keep track of each other and “to affirm and reaffirm the wellness of the world.” Like the birds, we can call out:

Where are you?
I’m here . . . You there?
I’m here . . . You there? 

We oriented by meditation teacher, Tara Brach’s, definition of “radical compassion.”  Her book, Radical Compassion, offers many practices for times when we are facing life’s difficulties.

Poet and author, David Whyte, describes “embodiment” in his book, Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words. David reminds us of the fleeting nature of our embodiment.

We heard poet, Marilyn Peretti’s poem, Still Living.  Marilyn reminds us of the enduring nature of our aliveness.  We are born of Earth, we return to her and new life emerges.

We were inspired by Seattle poet, Lisa Well’s wonderful Orion Magazine essay, The Sounds of Silence.  She describes  her experience of being intimate with nature.  She uses magical terms like “baseline symphony” and “companion calls” to affirm our inter-relatedness.  She lives in Seattle and is an editor for The Volta and Letter Machine Editions. She is the author of Believers: Making a Life at the End of the World.

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