So you can allow yourself to close your eyes or soften your gaze and begin to take a few deep breaths in and out.
And as you breathe,
Is it possible to let go of any noticeable tension in the face or shoulders,
Chest and belly?
And allow yourself to simply breathe in the natural rhythm that your body feels most comfortable.
In these difficult times,
The feelings of helplessness and despair can weigh heavy on our hearts,
On our minds.
And so often we're unaware of how it impacts us throughout the day.
Is it possible to periodically stop,
Take notice of tension in our body and allow ourselves to breathe?
There is a lot of ambivalence during this time.
Feeling the overwhelm of the current events.
It also leading our mundane tasks of this life.
Is it okay to feel both?
And to feel conflicted.
Mark Nepo has a poem called Adrift.
Everything is beautiful and I am so sad.
This is how the heart makes a duet of wonder and grief.
The light spraying through the lace of the fern is as delicate as the fibers of memory forming their web around the knot in my throat.
The breeze makes the birds move from branch to branch as this ache makes me look for those I've lost in the next room,
In the next song,
In the laugh of the next stranger.
In the very center under it all,
What we have that no one can take away and all that we've lost face each other.
It is there that I'm adrift,
Feeling punctured by a holiness that exists inside everything.
I am so sad and everything is beautiful.
The heart makes a duet.
Is it possible for us to acknowledge when feeling our feelings and not becoming overwhelmed by it?
It's an understanding that the only response is compassion.
As we feel ourselves breathing,
Is it possible to also focus on the love that we feel for others?
The care we continue to show,
The things we continue to do and provide,
Having our loved ones in our mind's eye,
Sending them light and peace and positive energy.
And as we continue to breathe,
Is it also possible to notice the way we feel cared for by ourselves or others?
The love that others give to us,
The kindness and support we feel.
Noticing our inner connection with one another.
Noticing the way that compassion fills us up so we can build on it,
Continue to be the peace as Thich Nhat Hanh would say.
There's a saying by Howard Zinn.
He says,
To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic.
It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty,
But also of compassion,
Of sacrifice,
Courage,
Kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives.
If we see only the worst,
It destroys our capacity to do something.
If we remember those times and places,
And there are so many where people have behaved magnificently,
This gives us the energy to act and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act in however small a way,
We don't have to wait for some grand utopian future.
The future is an infinite succession of presence.
And to live now as we think human beings should live in defiance of all that is bad around us is itself a marvelous victory.
Is it possible to set an intention to take any piece of this practice with you as you go on throughout your day in this uncertain world,
Relying on the certainty of your own love,
Your own compassion,
Your own peace?
Taking another few breaths in and out as we come back into this moment and open up our eyes.
Namaste.
