Moments

Please Call Me By My True Names - By Thich Nhat Hanh Don’t say that I will depart tomorrow — even today I am still arriving. Look deeply: every second I am arriving to be a bud on a Spring branch, to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings, learning to sing in my new nest, to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower, to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone. I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry, to fear and to hope. The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death of all that is alive. I am a mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the river. And I am the bird that swoops down to swallow the mayfly. I am a frog swimming happily in the clear water of a pond. And I am the grass-snake that silently feeds itself on the frog. I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones, my legs as thin as bamboo sticks. And I am the arms merchant, selling deadly weapons to Uganda. I am the twelve-year-old girl, refugee on a small boat, who throws herself into the ocean after being rape

Today is Jon Kabat Zinn’s 76-year-old birthday.   I was in the daily meditation Jon had been running daily on weekdays since March (this week is the 10 th week).  http://www.wisdom2conference.com/live The group has been organizing for Jon's birthday celebrations for weeks via the Whatsapp groups.  There was a google slide with hundreds of greeting cards, gratitude, and loving words from the community, and a map of love which we marked our presence.   https://youtu.be/5QyFGzd6rTo This was the happiest birthday celebration party. I have ever attended.  There was so much love, so much passion, so much gratitude, and appreciation. Jon has been so generous, so caring conducting these daily meditation sessions.  He had helped the community in getting through these COVID stressful moments. I did not think that I will be so joyful attending this birthday celebration. But I did, when I saw all the passion and love coming from so many people across the globe. I was also really

The River Cannot Go Back      Kahlil Gibran Top of Form Bottom of Form It is said that before entering the sea a river trembles with fear. She looks back at the path she has traveled, from the peaks of the mountains, the long winding road crossing forests and villages. And in front of her, she sees an ocean so vast, that to enter there seems nothing more than to disappear forever. But there is no other way. The river cannot go back. Nobody can go back. To go back is impossible in existence. The river needs to take the risk of entering the ocean because only then will fear disappear, because that’s where the river will know it’s not about disappearing into the ocean, but of becoming the ocean.

Just watched a TED video by Rita Wilson, the question I almost didn't ask and how it changed my life, "What do I want?"   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZML0eAZ-RwI We are often occupied, kept busy by our schedule, our daily chores.  How many times we really get to ask what do we want in life?  So often, we do something that is expected of us, or that we think will yield the best return, or it may be the easier way.  But, what do we really want?  Do we know, for sure?