As it turns out, I'm *not* going to the Zen Center this morning--I didn't make enough progress grading midterms yesterday, so I'll be busy with that today. So that means I'll be free to sit with y'all at 4pm Eastern time.
Stray, I hope you're resting & recovering from your scare with the drunks: it's alarming with obnoxious folks congregate & find courage in one another's stupidity.
Gak! Thank you, Jean. Yes, it's 9:00 in London and 10:00 in both Paris and Berlin. Pilot error, I guess -- my site gives me the right times now, so I must have screwed up.
Looking forward to sitting down at 9pm (thanks for the correction! ) and feeling the vibes.
Thanks for the support, it's good to know I am not insane ... I just find open expression of homophobia so shocking - in ten years in London that simply never happened to me. Here, it is happening almost daily.
This morning I got my friend from the airport and just soaked up the diversity that I miss so much since I moved out of the city ... and Arrivals is always such a moving, uplifting place to hang out - people reunited with fathers and children, partners and friends. Lots of hugs and kisses, few tears.
She's doing ok, surprisingly strong really. We talked about remembering people, and I suggested she write a "where I am from" poem - as seen on the blogs of Jean and Mary, on behalf of her father to capture some of what she holds true about him, and push that last year of illness (cancer) into the background. She loved that idea, so thank you J & M for taking the risk to share your own.
Hey there, everyone: it's good to "see" each one of you!
I just spent 20 minutes of "serious cushion time" during our synchro-sit, followed by two chants & the Four Great Vows. I was sleepy while sitting, but the chanting woke me up...and even through the sleepiness, I was holding you all in my heart.
Phew. Thought of you all. Missed the start as I was knocking together a compost bin out of bits of wood having discovered that the fox had got into ours ... but it felt like an appropriate task to be tackling, and I sat for 15 minutes from 9.10 here ... and just let my thoughts bounce around and drew myself back to breath and feelings and the universe as often as I could.
I was struck the other day when catching up on Jean's writing at this too about the whole "Me + Everything else" split - and how ridiculous it is and how no venn diagram could ever accurately divide me from the whole so why do I bother trying ... ?
So ... I felt very connected. Me, merging into air, merging into birds and leaves on trees and how on this funny little rock there were others - you guys - sitting right then.
I'm bloody lonely right now, you've no idea how good it is to feel less alone.
Said my refuge prayers and sat some ten minutes. (I was a few minutes late getting started, too, though right at 1:00 I did a three-breath just to be sure not to miss anyone :->) Lots of love to you all. Happy to think of Jude, sitting down in the early morning over there in the wintry antipodes, at the same time as Stray finished knocking together a compost bin on a summer evening.
Stray, hugs to you. I'm so glad you joined us.
May all beings never be without the sacred joy that is without suffering.
I chanted and then sat quietly. I have been feeling very separate and apart the last few days for various reasons, most of them self-created, but I am glad I overrode my disinclination and meditated anyway.
I sat before my altar in a room surrounded by cans of paint and furniture pushed towards the middle of the room, and with the smell of paint mixing with the incensse - I'm doing a bit of refurbishment prior to putting my apartment on the market in a few weeks time (I hope).
I thought of my own inner conflicts - which are too present for comfort at the moment - and then tried to send the intention of compassion to the conflicts in the outer world.
well, I got the time wrong in every way. I was in a huge family reunion when suddenly( partly due to some irritation about the members of the family who call themselves Christian not offering us a bite of their meal which they ate in front of us, but partly I think just moved to do so) it felt like a good moment to move away. I went for a swim at 8.30 and whilst doing that I remembered you so climbed out and sat alone with you and the cicadas for 15 minutes. It was so lovely and I felt I belonged with you, a sort of chosen family. Thank you.
Hi - I wasn't able to be with you all at 4:00 pm so I am going to catch up this evening. I also had a very meditative time in church this morning, so you will be remembered by me at both ends of my day. It's great to read about everyone's experiences today.
Stray, this afternoon I rode my bike through Montreal's gay village, which is large and was bursting with joie de vivre on this lovely day. I felt grateful that in this particular place, people felt relaxed and accepted. On Thursday we're having an "OutMass" at the Anglican cathedral to try to affirm that this acceptance extends to the religious sphere as well. So -- special hugs to you.
A beautiful meditation, but I had to float into time backwards since I had a crisis with one of my kids by phone and the other in person at the designated time. Excitedly talking, one into each ear. Ah, so. It all worked out, no doubt soothed by the gentle and loving vibes billowing the fabric of space/time.
When I finally had a moment to sit, I rushed out maybe past the moon to catch your meditations and join in, they were already radiating into the universe.
14 Comments:
Congratulations! To us - we've finished another round!
Of the great wheel, a successive wave, the third hundred days, by now our brightnesses are even brighter!
Our group sit, copied over from Dale's post last week:
Sunday, July 23rd
8:00 PM GMT, which is:
Sunday, July 23rd
1:00 PM Vancouver
2:00 PM Boise, Denver
4:00 PM Montreal
8:00 PM London, Paris
10:00 PM Berlin
Monday, July 24
5:00 AM Seoul, Tokyo
6:00 AM Queensland
Together in spirit later today, tonight, or tomorrow, as the case may be!
*hugs, love to all~
g'morning, everyone!
As it turns out, I'm *not* going to the Zen Center this morning--I didn't make enough progress grading midterms yesterday, so I'll be busy with that today. So that means I'll be free to sit with y'all at 4pm Eastern time.
Stray, I hope you're resting & recovering from your scare with the drunks: it's alarming with obnoxious folks congregate & find courage in one another's stupidity.
Um, yes, I think the time converter site WAS telling Dale lies. 8 pm GMT is 9 pm in London and 10 pm in Paris.
Never mind. I have every faith that we can touch each other across time as well as space.
See you there!
Gak! Thank you, Jean. Yes, it's 9:00 in London and 10:00 in both Paris and Berlin. Pilot error, I guess -- my site gives me the right times now, so I must have screwed up.
Looking forward to sitting down at 9pm (thanks for the correction! ) and feeling the vibes.
Thanks for the support, it's good to know I am not insane ... I just find open expression of homophobia so shocking - in ten years in London that simply never happened to me. Here, it is happening almost daily.
This morning I got my friend from the airport and just soaked up the diversity that I miss so much since I moved out of the city ... and Arrivals is always such a moving, uplifting place to hang out - people reunited with fathers and children, partners and friends. Lots of hugs and kisses, few tears.
She's doing ok, surprisingly strong really. We talked about remembering people, and I suggested she write a "where I am from" poem - as seen on the blogs of Jean and Mary, on behalf of her father to capture some of what she holds true about him, and push that last year of illness (cancer) into the background. She loved that idea, so thank you J & M for taking the risk to share your own.
Thinking of you all,
hugs xx
Stray, I'm so sorry about your encounter yesterday. I'm glad it came to nothing but just knowing people wish us ill is poison enough.
Where I live homophobia (overt homophobia, anyway) is almost unknown, and it's easy for me to forget how much there is elsewhere.
xoxo
Hey there, everyone: it's good to "see" each one of you!
I just spent 20 minutes of "serious cushion time" during our synchro-sit, followed by two chants & the Four Great Vows. I was sleepy while sitting, but the chanting woke me up...and even through the sleepiness, I was holding you all in my heart.
Phew. Thought of you all. Missed the start as I was knocking together a compost bin out of bits of wood having discovered that the fox had got into ours ... but it felt like an appropriate task to be tackling, and I sat for 15 minutes from 9.10 here ... and just let my thoughts bounce around and drew myself back to breath and feelings and the universe as often as I could.
I was struck the other day when catching up on Jean's writing at this too about the whole "Me + Everything else" split - and how ridiculous it is and how no venn diagram could ever accurately divide me from the whole so why do I bother trying ... ?
So ... I felt very connected. Me, merging into air, merging into birds and leaves on trees and how on this funny little rock there were others - you guys - sitting right then.
I'm bloody lonely right now, you've no idea how good it is to feel less alone.
:) xx
Hi All
Said my refuge prayers and sat some ten minutes. (I was a few minutes late getting started, too, though right at 1:00 I did a three-breath just to be sure not to miss anyone :->) Lots of love to you all. Happy to think of Jude, sitting down in the early morning over there in the wintry antipodes, at the same time as Stray finished knocking together a compost bin on a summer evening.
Stray, hugs to you. I'm so glad you joined us.
May all beings never be without the sacred joy that is without suffering.
I chanted and then sat quietly. I have been feeling very separate and apart the last few days for various reasons, most of them self-created, but I am glad I overrode my disinclination and meditated anyway.
I sat before my altar in a room surrounded by cans of paint and furniture pushed towards the middle of the room, and with the smell of paint mixing with the incensse - I'm doing a bit of refurbishment prior to putting my apartment on the market in a few weeks time (I hope).
I thought of my own inner conflicts - which are too present for comfort at the moment - and then tried to send the intention of compassion to the conflicts in the outer world.
Jude - good to hear from you.
Meant to say .. thank you very much to all of you. It was powerful.
well, I got the time wrong in every way. I was in a huge family reunion when suddenly( partly due to some irritation about the members of the family who call themselves Christian not offering us a bite of their meal which they ate in front of us, but partly I think just moved to do so) it felt like a good moment to move away. I went for a swim at 8.30 and whilst doing that I remembered you so climbed out and sat alone with you and the cicadas for 15 minutes. It was so lovely and I felt I belonged with you, a sort of chosen family. Thank you.
(((stray))))
Hi - I wasn't able to be with you all at 4:00 pm so I am going to catch up this evening. I also had a very meditative time in church this morning, so you will be remembered by me at both ends of my day. It's great to read about everyone's experiences today.
Stray, this afternoon I rode my bike through Montreal's gay village, which is large and was bursting with joie de vivre on this lovely day. I felt grateful that in this particular place, people felt relaxed and accepted. On Thursday we're having an "OutMass" at the Anglican cathedral to try to affirm that this acceptance extends to the religious sphere as well. So -- special hugs to you.
A beautiful meditation, but I had to float into time backwards since I had a crisis with one of my kids by phone and the other in person at the designated time. Excitedly talking, one into each ear. Ah, so. It all worked out, no doubt soothed by the gentle and loving vibes billowing the fabric of space/time.
When I finally had a moment to sit, I rushed out maybe past the moon to catch your meditations and join in, they were already radiating into the universe.
Felt close to you all. 'Twas beautiful.
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