Mindfulness Starts Here!

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Dear *|FNAME|*:
 

News

Welcome to all our new graduates of the M4 Winter programs. And what a winter this has been! There's still snow on the ground but the light is growing brighter. We hope you are keeping up with your practice and are so happy to see many of you at the meditation evenings.

Lynette: A week ago I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the first Teacher Training Retreat for the Mindful Self-Compassion program developed by Drs. Christopher Germer and Kristin Neff. That was quite the cauldron in which to cook my teaching skills! You can read more about the MSC program here. 

As part of my on-going training, I will be running a pilot program in MSC in May. It is an 8-week program with one half-day session about half-way through the course. It will be a day program running from 9 AM - noon. I'd like to invite volunteers from those of you who have completed our M4 program to sign up! There are only 10 spaces and it is on a first-come basis. The cost is minimal to cover the printing of the materials (likely about $30).

Click here to register

On the Mindful Bookshelf

10% Happiness by Dan Harris
The Mindful Way Workbook by John Teasdale, Mark Williams, & Zindel Segal
Self-Compassion: Stop Beating Yourself Up and Leave Insecurity Behind by Kristin Neff
Self-Compassion Step by Step: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself by Kristin Neff
The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion by Christopher Germer

A Poem

EVERYTHING IS WAITING FOR YOU

Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice. You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.

Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into
the conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.

From RIVER FLOW: New and Selected Poems
& EVERYTHING IS WAITING FOR YOU
© David Whyte and Many Rivers Press