Our discomfort is wise. It is asking us to pay attention to something important. Anger. Sadness. Grief. Guilt. Shame. All of these difficult feelings are wise.  And yet, the realities of most of our upbringing is that we learn to respond to this discomfort unwisely. We respond to discomfort with knee-jerk reactions.

I take the weekends off; I completely unplug. No social media, no email, no news. Usually that allows me to refuel for the week ahead and to be able to engage wholeheartedly. However, this Monday as I opened my laptop, I opened it to discover that my own city, Atlanta, GA, was the home of another unjust murder of a black man by police. Rayshard Brooks. 

Hope is a practice. It is something we do rather than something we have. So too is our meditation practice. It isn’t a state to have or exhibit, it is a practice to return to on a daily basis.

I am humbled to share this practice with you all today. You are showing up even though I’m sure many of you are experiencing feelings of I-don’t-want-to right now. Perhaps you don’t want to meditate right now because you are so uncomfortable, or angry, or disappointed, or scared, or tired, or done with waiting one more second, or all of the above.

Today’s meditation practice is a compassion practice that can apply to any person or group of people that you choose to practice for – it can be practiced for yourself, if you are the one who needs that loving support today. When we practice, we are deeply connecting to the thread of humanity we all share. Let us stand {and sit} together in solidarity and in love.

This week I am sharing a discussion with my business partner and all around favorite person, Octavia Raheem. Octavia & I have been friends, colleagues & partners for many years, and now, Octavia has published her first book – Gather.

This podcast episode is offered humbly as a practice to support and uplift in times of crisis. This is recorded as America experiences widespread protests and riots in response to the deep, and too-long-ignored racism prevalent in every layer of our culture. This talk and this practice, I hope, are useful for all beings everywhere as we bravely and unflinchingly face the oppressions, discriminations, forced exoduses and genocides that occur anytime we create the label “other”. 

This mini meditation is led by visionary artist Kim Krans. For the full story, I encourage you to listen to the full length episode released on 5/28/20. For now, enjoy this six minute mini meditation designed to give you a taste of timelessness. This practice helps to pull us out of the moment when we are feeling stuck or lost and gives us access to something larger.