11.11.2024. Dollops of Kindness
International Kindness Day is Wednesday, November 13.
Who knew such a day existed?
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Let us then insist on kindness. With each step, especially on this Wednesday. Let us press kindness into this holy-broken, dark worm rich earth with our feet. Into the hearts of all that we pass on the street. Letting kindness be untamed, wild and free. Letting kindness ride on our breath. Becoming the holy temple of our prayers:
Breath in: Peace
Breath out: Kindness
Simple and small. Exquisite and tender. Letting kindness see. A smile to the man restocking blueberries in the grocery store. A true gentle-wide, have a lovely day-thank you to the barista at the coffee window. Kindness plain, no lace trim needed. It could be how you let the older gentleman, too proud with his cane, give up his seat for you. It could be offering a kind unspoken ‘I-would-give-in-too’ to the mother whose child is in full meltdown in the toy aisle. It could just be cross stitching a kind word or two on the hem of the hearts of those you hold most dear so when needed you are always tucked in near, loving them fierce, timeless.
“kindness—
as now and again
some rare person has suggested—
is a miracle.
As surely it is.”
– Mary Oliver
🌸 Below, lovely offerings for your Heart: 2 Poems. 3 Quotes. 1 Practice. 1 Delight. 1 Yoga Nidra. 1 Come Join Us. 1 Closing Bard Song.
A NOTE. NO Metta In-Person Next Monday, November 18. Out-of-Town. 🌸
🌸 🌸 Two Poems to Share.
🌿 Thank you for asking. For looking “even under the fallen leaves” in last week’s Metta Newsletter for my two poems. The poem, Buttering Toast, Mid-Morning Naps Required, was one of the five winning poems of Eremos’ Poetry for Thriving Contest with Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, and the other, Under Heart-Shaped Leaves was a top ten finalist. I am so glad you asked. What a beautiful honor for me to share.
Buttering Toast, Mid-Morning Naps Required | Winifred Nimrod
I do not look in the mirror anymore, Win. It is not relevant,
my teacher said. an old lady now. easily worn down.
Her cabin and cushion on the mountain, gone. Her monastery
a care facility somewhere in california where white grapes form.
She lives in simple. all the stuff, all the boxes marked save to-sort
later, gone. No use for calendars, clothes, or new close friends.
How long has it been, Win? I don't remember.
I say not long. I don't have the heart to say yesterday.
We laugh out loud together, a pair of old slippers finding their lost other half
under the couch. We slide in together. time dissolves. memory restored. Not
even a blip, she is back, my teacher, her voice a transmission. She lives on
moments, sun dazzling on the edge of ocean time. on the cusp of awake
alive. rising. falling. rising. falling, I could be dead-in-the-next-moment time.
We laugh some more. recite memorized poems, and weep.
Without missing a beat she says, Win, how long has it been?
I say not long.
Under Heart-Shaped Leaves | Winifred Nimrod
The Buddha gave
84,000 teachings to one
hundred enlightened monks.
Inscribed, thirty decades after
memorized time.
The Buddha understood the nature
of mind, some needed a scholarly
labyrinth to unwind; other’s simply
a word to ride on the breath. So
I say to you: follow what is true
and orchid soft to you. Not that I
am against the scrubbing, scrutinizing
the mind, that is noble and wise (sometimes).
But first take a good seat. Reside with a
posture of dignity, with ease on your insides.
Root your pelvis into worm rich soil. Let your
heart be steeped. Invite your eyes to call off
the search. In the fields of space between
each letter, each word, lay down.
This is how to be a light.
This is how to be a bloom in the compost.
This is what I know to be true: Life is
made of roadkill and rubble.
But then there are the 17-year cicadas,
nestled in the dark humus, newly emerged,
blanketing cars and trees and concrete
Garden Buddhas, singing their siren, sacred.
🌸🌸🌸 Three Quotes | Gaylon Ferguson. Christine Valters Paintner. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.
“… at a certain point, the crucial next step on the spiritual path is meditation in action … We are the artists of our lives and of our collective destiny, co-creating a disastrous or healthy future: it’s up to us. May all our innate seeds of natural bravery flower as communities of compassionate courage.” — Gaylon Ferguson, Natural Bravery: Fear and Fearlessness as a Direct Path of Awakening
"Breath is our constant companion, as is our heartbeat, and these gentle risings and fallings offer us the gift of a kind of scaffolding for our prayers." — Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Breath Prayer: An Ancient Practice for the Everyday Sacred
“Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy.” — Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
🌸 Something to Practice Like Your Hair's On Fire | Outside Your Comfort Zone.
A-Must-Watch. A Short poignant teaching 6:54 min long. Give a watch. A video excerpt of Pema Chödrön's online course, The Heart of the Matter.
She draws three-circles; the inner center circle is the ‘comfort zone”. Where we want to hang out. As Pema says, if we stay there, there is no growth.
(Bummer, because who does not know this place deep in the bone. the cozy-comfort zone, it is known and safe. Where we seek pleasure and avoid even the mildest form of pain. Some say the opposite of comfort is grief.)
The middle circle she names the ‘challenging our comfort zone'. This is where the learning happens. Pema emphasizes, this is where our gold is, where the learning happens.Yes it is challenging, so our habitual instinctual self wants us to back back-up into the comfort-zone BUT if we stay open to the discomfort this is where we grow, where we wake up!
(Amen, but going to our uncomfortable edges, easier said than done).
The outer circle she calls the ‘excessive risk zone’ saying there are some places we are not ready to go, yet. It's at the deep end of the swimming pool.
Here is the Magic: If we are willing to leave our comfort zone, toe-in and ‘dare greatly’ to quote lovely Brené Brown, and work with our challenges. The comfort zone, the middle circle expands, begins to grow outward so that what was once in the challenge zone is now something we meet with more ease. This is where our habituated patterns get unmade.
Here is the not-so-good news: If we stay snug-as-a-bug, in our comfort zone, it shrinks and becomes a tighter inner circle and the older we get the more uncomfortable and threatened we become.
🌿 So we begin.We do the arduous and joyous work of waking up. We hold each other’s hands. We walk out to the wild-outer edges of our comfort-zone and with great kindness and our begging bowl prayers, we count out loud, sing a sacred hymn.. ‘1, 2, 3’ and leap! Jump together into our unknowns, our holy challenge-zone. We cannot do this work on our own.
“True friends are heroes and heroines who remind us that we are possible. They are the human stars who come out when things go dark. When things go well, they are often unseeable like stars during the day but in our sudden night, we see them and go, “Oh, I can find my way.”
— Mark Nepo, You Don’t Have to Do It Alone
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🌸 Something to Delight In | Travelling Unalone.
Oregon’s poet laureate, Anis Mojgani shares his poetry and his presence outside his window each Friday night; inviting anyone who wishes to come.
Travelling Unalone is medicine good for the heart, tenderness and bearing witness that is much needed today. Watch this short film on KarmaTube (15:16 min)
Another delight to know about KarmaTube, it is dedicated to bringing inspirational stories to light, using the power of video and the internet to multiply acts of kindness, beauty, and generosity.
🌸 Something to Attend | Replenish: Yoga Nidra with Courtney Riley
The gorgeous beyond sacred teacher, Courtney Riley, will be in town this Sunday, November 17th! Teaching at Reach Yoga in Glencoe at 4:30-5:45 pm.
Give yourself precious time. Come rest into tender-nourishment for your soul, heart and body with Yoga Nidra, Breathwork, gentle movement, and Free Writing.
🌿
🌸 Come Join Us! | AWAKEN YOUR YES. DECEMBER 9TH. 🌸
Your Light, your Yes is needed now more than ever!
‘Let us fill the sky with the light of a brilliant, brilliant billion of stars.’
Let us fill the long dark sky with the light of our billion Yes’s.
🌿
There is still room for you! What a beautiful way to welcome the holidays. A One-day Retreat together with Megan Dunne Krouse, Courtney Riley & myself.
Come step into the tender heart of self-discovery and open to your authentic ‘Yes’ that resides within you. Unfolding your full-embodied ‘Yes’ through Breath, Movement, Meditation, Yoga Nidra, Reflective Dialogue, Ritual, and Contemplative Writing.
Here is what you need to know:
Monday December 9th.
9:30am - 3:30pm.
A nutritious seasonal lunch is included.
Women's Club of Wilmette
930 Greenleaf Avenue in Wilmette
Space is Limited
🌿 Scholarships are available.
Reach out to Courtney, all requests honored and held sacred.
🌸 Closing Song | Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Into My Arms, a gorgeous song. From the bard, Nick Cave, in the end it is all about Love.
“But I believe in love
And I know that you do too
And I believe in some kind of path
That we can walk down, me and you
So keep your candles burning
Make her journey bright and pure
That she'll keep returning
Always and evermore.
Into my arms, oh, Lord”
Listen on YouTube (5:43 min)
on Spotify here (4:16 min)
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🌸 So Grateful You Are Part of This Community. 🌸
If you enjoyed this newsletter, please feel free to share it with someone who might appreciate it, t🌿 Thank you for being here!
This Metta Newsletter is a Love-offering
✨ an offering to bloom more Light
💞 more Goodness
🌎 more gorgeous-tenderness on our planet.
Please consider making a small donation to help me and Metta Mondays newsletter to continue to ripple out into the world for the benefit of all.
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Zelle: wininim@gmail.com or 847.312.9313
Until next week. 💖 ✨
