Loving Attention Toward Daily Challenges
let's find that place together!
The other night (in my new sparkling incredible night life in which I can leave my house from 6-9pm because my youngest no longer nurses to sleep!) I was out at dinner talking to friends. The subject of meditation retreats came up, and I was remembering and of course yelling about how good it feels to go on retreats. I was also yelling about this liquid feeling that runs through my whole system after one, how easy it is to focus, to do whatever is needed, to move through a day, because I’m hyper-aware of it all being a gift. It is especially easy to keep my mind with my body, so I experience everything vividly as it’s happening. It’s not an absence of stress or pain or heartache, in fact the heartache is often larger. Because I’m not leaving my body, I’m not afraid of it, I don’t feel like I need to search for distraction. I haven’t gone on a retreat since before I had kids, so that feeling of effortless presence is often distant these days. But remembering that I did have that feeling helps me access small pieces of it, moments of it.
I created these parenting circles in part to create parent-sized space for us to access that connection between our minds and our bodies and our hearts and each other. It’s not very long but it’s not nothing and one of the biggest things I need (and maybe you?) is to not skip over the time we have as parents to rejuvenate. This is my effort to offer space we don’t skip over to really sink into, to nourish ourselves, each other.
Last week I wrote about how hard it can feel to be in my house with my kids in that time before dinner and bedtime. This week, tomorrow, from 10:30am-12pm pst, I want us to gather in a mini retreat in which we put our collective loving attention toward a time of day or a parenting situation that feels challenging. That means we’ll meditate first, then we’ll write a little to notice where we are. Where we are together, in a circle of support, and where we are in our own psyches. And I’ll offer questions and time for reflection, both in writing and in conversation, where we can see if we can bring some creativity and freshness to whatever is feeling challenging in our parenting right now.
I hope I get to see you there! It’s a gift, a huge one, these circles. If you haven’t joined yet, please do. It’s grounding support to keep going, to not miss the magic, to name the difficulty, to feel a circle shape with others, our natures flowing with other natures inside nature.
Either way, LOVE!
Here’s the link to register!
xo
Sarah