Open Road Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue

 

February 15, 2023

 

Jason Beito sent this poem:

 

Cloud

 

Before you became a cloud, you were an ocean, roiled and
murmuring like a mouth. You were the shadow of a cloud
crossing over a field of tulips. You were the tears of a
man who cried into a plaid handkerchief. You were a sky
without a hat. Your heart puffed and flowered like sheets
drying on a line.

 

And when you were a tree, you listened to trees and the tree
things trees told you. You were the wind in the wheels of a
red bicycle. You were the spidery Maria tattooed on the
hairless arm of a boy in downtown Houston. You were the
rain rolling off the waxy leaves of a magnolia tree. A lock
of straw-colored hair wedged between the mottled pages of a
Victor Hugo novel. A crescent of soap. A spider the color
of a finger nail. The black nets beneath the sea of olive
trees. A skein of blue wool. A tea saucer wrapped in
newspaper. An empty cracker tin. A bowl of blueberries in
heavy cream. White wine in a green-stemmed glass.

 

And when you opened your wings to wind, across the
punched-tin sky above a prison courtyard, those condemned to
death and those condemned to life watched how smooth and
sweet a white cloud glides.

 

—Sandra Cisneros

*

 

                      Jinx

 

Trees spread their arms, birds open 

their wings, rain falls on everyone,

and the wind brings breath to all.

 

When I’m lucky, do I mother my luck, 

knowing how fragile fortune can be?

Am I generous and kind, letting luck 

brim and flow, spill and splash to wash

everything I touch, everyone lucky enough 

to stumble into this circle of light?

 

Or might I forget how happiness shuns

a place of no love, where luck leaks 

from a fist clenched to keep it? 

 

—Kim Stafford

*

 

Now I close my eyes,

and somewhere a butterfly

contemplates cocoon.

 

—Alex Tretbar

*

 

It’s Valentine’s Day. Love Day. I don’t know what love is, or where it comes from. It’s a Mystery! Wouldn’t it be lovely if everyone lived in love—if we all loved each other, and loved all the animals and plants and rivers and clouds and stones? Let’s try it and see what happens! 

 

William Blake says:

 

Love to faults is always blind,

Always is to joy inclin’d,

Lawless, wing’d & unconfin’d,

And breaks all chains from every mind

 

—Johnny Stallings

*

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Loving Kindness Meditation goes hand in hand with Mindfulness says Thich Nhat Hanh. 

Here is a link to Thay giving a rare Metta meditation for LovingKindness. 

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5luvQp–B8U

 Is there a difference between being nice and being kind?  After practicing LovingKindness meditation I’ve been feeling a pull to agree, to say yes, to be more present,..  Kindness itself is a practice that can make us become and feel more engaged – with others, in causes, and in our own true self as well.  This feels like what it means to have meaning in our life.  

“Just being nice will not be enough to save civility in today’s world. It will take the patience and focus of true and loving-kindness.”  writes Donna Cameron.  She has a book about her year of consciously Living Kindly.  She continues:

“Kindness is how you see the world, and you be kind because it needs to be done. On the other hand,  . . . You can remain distant and still be nice, but that’s not the case with kindness. 

Kindness doesn’t mean becoming saintly! 

No, we all are humans, and all of us tend to falter now and then. Just because you get angry and upset doesn’t mean you cannot or should not practice being kind.  

Health benefits of kindness 

Kindness has a major effect on our emotional, mental, and physical health. Studies have shown that kindness raises serotonin and oxytocin levels in our bodies, and these chemicals make us happier. This surge isn’t permanent, hence you have to keep practicing kind acts to keep the level up. These chemicals also help in reducing blood pressure and inflammation.  

Not only that, kindness eases our relationships therefore drastically reducing our stress levels. Interestingly, witnessing a kind act also has the same impact on our body as performing a kind act does. Each act of kindness establishes neural pathways, therefore it becomes easier and more natural over time.”

Invitation:  Think of a time you received a kindness, something small that may have changed you, or that you often think of even though you may have been young.  

Or join a Monday night LovingKindness meditation with me and others.   Here’s a link if you would like to sign in.  It is free, every Monday 8-8:30 p.m. Drop in.

https://www.firstunitarianportland.org/events/lovingkindnessmeditation/

A metta practice for you:  Thich Nhat Hanh says there is value in practicing Metta even 5 minutes a day.

 

May I be at peace. 

May my heart remain open. 

May I awaken to the light of my own true nature.

May I be healed. 

May I be a source of healing for all beings. 

 

Continue with loved ones  – You, We, then one you may have a conflict with, then with the whole world. 

May we know Peace.   May we know love.

 

“Only your compassion and your loving kindness are invincible, and without limit.” “Smile, breathe and go slowly.”  – Thay

 

— Katie Radditz

 

Katie also sent this poem by Juan Felipe Herrera:

 

Song Out Here

 

if i could sing

i’d say everything         you know

from here on the street can you turn around

just for once i am                     here

right behind you

what is that flag what is it made of

maybe it’s too late i have

too many questions where did it all come from

what colors is it all made of everything

everything here in the subways

there are so many things and voices

we are going somewhere but i just don’t know

somewhere

but i just don’t know

          somewhere

do you know where that is i want to sing

so you can hear me and maybe you can tell me

where to go so you can hear me and just maybe

you can tell me where to go

all those hands and legs and faces going places

if i could sing

you would hear me and i would tell you

it’s gonna be alright

it’s gonna be alright

it’s gonna be alright it would be something like that

can you turn around so i can look into your eyes

just for once your eyes

maybe like hers can you see her

and his can you see them i want you to see them

all of us we could be together

if i could sing we would go there

we would run there together

we would live there for a while in that tilted

tiny house by the ocean rising up inside of us

i am on the curb next to a curled up cat

smoking i know its bad for you but

you know how it is just for once can you turn around

a straight line falling behind you it’s me i want to sing

invincible                                             bleeding out with love

 

just for you

 

— Juan Felipe Herrera

*

 

I keep what is sacred to me

safe in the heart of the sun.

The path is a maze of stairs

made for the ones I love.

All are welcome & if you’re

able all can come.

Just being yourself as

you were always meant to be.

Everyone is welcomed and

all are accepted by me.

 

—Rocky Hutchinson

*

 

The Pause

 

When I read a poem in the mornings

to the people in boxes on the screen,

dear people, beloved all,

they settle, they listen

and when I am done

they don’t look at each other,

or at me.

 

They look up.

 

Many times, depending of course

on the poem, there will be a half smile.

 

The threads the words weave

are a nest for us to rest in together

to ponder, wonder, absorb.

 

There is a pause.

 

We chat then briefly,

sometimes seriously,

sometimes frivolously,

about an image,

a confusion,

or something else entirely.

 

We learn about each other.

 

Then we disperse out into the day,

separate, yet connected by the resonant

imprint of a shared moment of apprehending

something we hadn’t thought of ourselves.

 

 —Elizabeth Domike