Happy Thanksgiving my friends! However you choose to spend today (in celebration, in remembrance, with friends and family or without) I hope you take time to connect mindfully to the moment.

Today, I’m introducing the second, simple teaching in this series on Mindful Living…

Wear nice clothes.

Hello Friends! Happy November!

As we move into the season of giving and getting, I thought it could be helpful to revisit some vital teachings that connect us to mindful living. Our meditation practice this time of year can be more important than ever, and, with so much clamoring for our attention right now, how wonderful to focus on the simplicity of these teachings. They keep us clear, mindful and awake to what really matters.

Some moments feel all-consuming, don’t they? Especially moments of profound hopelessness, despair, or fear. Moments when it feels like there is nothing to be done and nothing will change…. These can be difficult personal moments in our work life or our family life, and they can be difficult times in the state of our world – the ongoing trauma of hatred, the intense feelings of separateness.

One of the things I’m constantly thinking about/discussing/brainstorming is the difficulty in maintaining a consistent meditation practice. WHY is it so hard for us {myself included} to commit to something that we KNOW will help us enjoy our lives more fully??

This past weekend was full of special, beautiful moments, some mundane ones, and a few really annoying moments. Interestingly, I noticed that because I had some really special moments, the frustrating moments were MORE frustrating. It seems that when partnered right alongside something wonderful, it is even harder than normal to deal with the difficult moments. It sends us into a daily, tumultuous tailspin of emotion –

Today, we are talking about the PRACTICE of opening to an everyday, ordinary Grace, and a large part of this practice is how we relate to stress. For most of us, the natural assumption is that stress is a bad thing. That it is in the way of our joy, and that we need things to be different if we are to open to Grace.

I’m not a Zen meditation practitioner, but I’m intrigued by the practice of Zen Koans. A koan is a question or a story that upon reflecting on it, causes the student to awaken. Hearing the right question at the right moment. Seeing the sunrise on this particular day…. Any of thousands of mundane moments can be the catalyst for awakening to the grace and beauty of our everyday lives. This month’s meditation series is about exactly this – Ordinary Grace.