Summer Garden Mindfulness A summer garden is the most natural place to practice mindfulness. The overflowing scents, colors, and beauty help us focus. However, it is easy to be distracted in your own garden noticing all the tasks calling to you. If your garden is like mine in mid-summer it is bursting with edibles, flowers, … Read more
How does a mindfulness scavenger hunt work? Unlike a regular scavenger hunt the, goal is NOT to hurry or to necessarily find everything on the list. Find what you can. The practice is to notice, engage, appreciate, and cultivate wonder for the natural world. If you deepen your connection by taking time with anyone of … Read more
Mindful Garden Intentions for 2021 Embrace Wholeness. If you are a gardener you already know a garden is much more than the visible plants. Soil, pollinators, fungi, micro-organisms, the elements, and green plants are an interconnected web. Find ways to hold that connectedness in your awareness throughout the day. Share the Joy. Introduce someone to … Read more
My New Mural My back yard is home to a new mural – a tree with curving branches and vibrantly colored leaves. Created by Amy Calabrese, it is painted on the side of my garage, and makes a backdrop for the currants and nettles. I can see the tree as soon as I … Read more
I spent the last week in Qigong teacher training at Kripalu Retreat Center. The training was wonderful, and I will write more about it in future blogs. But what I want to focus on this morning is simply cultivating our awareness of stillness, which is a part of Qigong and many other mindfulness practices. It … Read more
Shores of Lake Erie Opening up to the Aliveness of nature is this week’s mindfulness focus. Some settings immediately open our eyes to the aliveness of the natural world. I grew up along the shores of Lake Erie(1) and walking along the beach on even the calmest days, the aliveness is palpable. On stormy … Read more
Spring is Coming I know it is super cold in much of the country, but there are sure signs of spring if we are paying attention. The minutes of sunlight are increasing each day and seed catalogs are arriving in the mail. If you are not a gardener, it might be hard to understand … Read more
My 2017 Intention It’s the last Sunday of the year and I’ve made it to a finish line of sorts. At this time last year, I set an intention to write a weekly blog on a word or a concept for mindful focus. My goal was multi-purposed. Setting a weekly focal point would give me … Read more
The mindfulness focus this week is turning points. The funny thing about turning points is that we don’t always know when we’ve made it around the bend. Oh sure, sometimes it is obvious. It may be something dramatic like a new job or a move to a new city. But often, turning points … Read more
The blog post below was written one year ago. Sadly, it feels even more relevant 365 days later. In hopes that the light will overcome the darkness very soon, I am re-posting it now. Thoughts on the Longest Night – Winter Solstice Winter solstice always carries the symbolism of light overtaking the darkness. The longest … Read more
