just a quick reminder that if we put forth the effort, we can be miserable no matter where we are. 😂
however, the opposite can also be true! 👍🏻
as my friend, Marty Martin, always says – “Choose joy!” 😁
choosing joy doesn’t mean we won’t have challenging, crummy things happen to us, or that we won’t have difficult times in life. choosing joy, is choosing our perspective, our lens through which we view life. there’s no dark cloud over our lives, there’s no bad luck. there are life events, there are challenges and difficulties – all of which are opportunities to learn, to grow, to practice our love, our compassion, our kindness, our patience, our healing. life is always moving and changing so there is opportunity for newness, for freshness – after winter, spring. 🌻
we get to experience this precious life – that’s something to be joyful about.
how else to tend to a world in need? how else to bring healing?
openness in heart with a beginner’s mind, is a practice aligning ourselves with life. such openness allows space for clarity and compassion to arise, to see the need, to tend to the need.
the opposite, is death. to be closed, constricted, hardened. this closing, this hardening, this narrowing brings harm and destruction. we are seeing a lot of this right now, in the fear, in the anger, in the violence we are seeing.
stay open, be curious and willing to learn, to grow, to be alive. center in and move from love, rather than fear.
and well worth it, befriending ourselves, coming back to the breath, this body, this heart, this mind. invest in yourself, you too deserve your compassion, your kindness, your love.
~j
⭕️♥️🙏🏻
although it is our own journey to take, we can share in that journey together. if interested, join me for some mindfulness awareness and lovingkindness meditation this Saturday at 10am pst. session is free or by donation. $10 suggested.
happy 87th birthday to His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama! 💫
bows of gratitude for his continued presence and his persistent message of compassion as the vehicle for resolving the world’s problems. may he live in good health for many years to come, continuing to be a light of compassion and peace.
~j ⭕️♥️🙏🏻
from His Holiness:
“Every day, think as you wake up, ‘Today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can.” ~ HH The 14th Dalai Lama
i, too, am fascinated by space and space travel. i love looking up at the stars into this vast mystery we are a part of.
however, why do we have to go to Mars to have a common goal, to bring us together, when there is so much need here on Earth? if we can’t come together to end the slaughter of children at a schools, or churchgoers, or parade attendees, then we are just distracting ourselves. if we love weapons of war more than life, then we’ll just keep killing each other on Mars as well.
let’s not be distracted.
we have the awesome ingenuity and passion to travel into outer space. let’s also make traveling to the inner space of the heart and mind, just as important.
i’ve avoided posting today for #July4th , because i feel there’s quite a bit to be discouraged about and mourn, frankly. more on all of those issues and their recent developments in upcoming posts.
for now, today, i’ve mostly had #JaylandWalker on my mind and the #MassShooting in #HighlandPark. where i don’t have words, Bernice King puts it into words quite perfectly.
this is the #StateOfTheUnion and it isn’t good. we have our work cut out for us. if we really want to celebrate #IndependenceDay and #democracy, THEN GET #ENGAGED AND #VOTE.
wishing peace for all departed and their families, and healing for all wounded.
holding all of this sh*t with love. may flowers one day bloom!
i will miss you my friend. i am so grateful to have known you & to have had the privilege to call you friend for so long.
we met 30 years ago in 1992. we were just babies, juniors in high school drama (see first pic, Erin second from right, w/ me – w/ hair – just left of her). you were already a theatre veteran when i was cast in my 1st play, See How They Run. you were Penelope & i played the Russian Spy. i believe my first line to you & in the show was, “I vant your clodes (clothes)!” 😂
i fell into that show & into friendships that would last 3 decades. how can anyone be so lucky?!
we did other high school shows together & show choir, hung out at school dances & confided during rehearsal breaks. i watched as you followed your dreams & created a life you loved.
you loved life, you wanted to live, & you lived so deeply & passionately, more than so many of us. you brought us into your life, your artist’s journey – acting, directing, producing, creating, coaching, & your cancer journey – teaching us in your vulnerability, inspiring us w/ your courage, challenging us w/ your thirst for life & art. you were a passionate advocate who put into practice what she preached.
your happiness in your art & in your relationship & marriage to Bryn, gave me such joy, to see you filled w/ such joy & love.
i hold you in my heart & practice. i offer love to all who miss you in these moments & love you and called you dear, to Bryn especially & all who are family.
my friend, Erin, i offer the words of the Bardo Thodol: “Remember the clear light, the pure clear white light from which everything in the universe comes, to which everything in the universe returns – the original nature of your own mind, the natural state of the unmanifest universe. Let go into the clear light, trust it, unite with it. It is your own true nature, it is home.”
my friend, Erin, i offer the words of The Heart Sutra mantra:
“gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā!”
“gone, gone, everyone gone to the other shore, awakening, so be it!”
here is some of the artwork and photography i’ve gifted my Patreon members as digital art print downloads for them to use and print as they like 👍🏻
these digital art prints are in addition to the other benefits each of the seven contributor tiers already receive. they’re a way of saying thank you for such generosity and are given to every level 🤩
for the price of a coffee (just $3 or $5) a month, you can have all of these digital prints, plus future ones, plus tier benefits ✨
please consider supporting my art and my ability to offer free/by donation meditation instruction, as i also provide full-time care for my father who has Parkinson’s/Lewy Body Dementia.
we simply can’t afford to become numb, to stick our heads in the sand. ignorance is not bliss when there is harm being done and there’s A LOT of harm to not be ignorant about right now. love calls us to be present, to bear witness, to engage, and tend to need.
but part of love is self-care. so we must honor our feelings, our emotions that arise in relation to what we are experiencing individually and collectively. whatever arises, hold it with love, tend to it with compassion and tenderness. be kind to yourself.
then when rested and centered in love, and moved by compassion, get back up and engage this world.
years ago @theinterdependenceproject introduced me to the phrase “Sit Down Rise Up” and i’ve carried it with me as a kind of mantra since. we sit, we take care, we tend to our heart and mind. then we rise up, we tend to the world, a world in need of our love. it’s worth it. we are worth it, the world is worth it.
The Metta Garden 