Category: Uncategorized Page 12 of 16

In 1999, I attended a week-long residential training with the National SEED Project. SEED, an acronym for Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity, was founded by Dr. Peggy McIntosh at the Wellesley College Center for Women to train teachers to be leaders in social understanding and change. I became a leader in SEED education for parents at several local DC schools, something I did for 10 years, with my brilliant and dear partner Sau Yang.

The SEED training gave us masses of resources, experiences, exercises, questions, filters, and concepts through which to view people’s lives. Out of that raw material, Sau and I created curricula for our monthly seminars, 3 hour sessions which ran 9 months of the year.

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Paen: A fervent expression of joy or praise

Do we speak enough about kindness? Do we value it sufficiently in all that it adds to our lives?

It’s not one of the big, bold characteristics, like courage or anger or passion. It’s humbler, it’s quieter. It’s the person making casseroles for the ill, hungry or homeless. It’s the friend who loans you her car when you’re desperate to get your son to a medical treatment (Sharon Bauer!!!). It’s the person who brings you soup (Daemon Jones!!!). It’s the neighbor who mows your grass strip next to the sidewalk (Scott Ressler!!!). It’s the son who notices you don’t feel well and makes you breakfast (Arran Cooper!!!).

In this crazy, chaotic time, let’s take a moment to savor and appreciate how very much kindness adds to the quality of our lives.

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Metta meditation, or lovingkindness, is one of the 4 compassion practices known as the Brahma Viharas or Divine Abodes. Sometimes referred to as the two wings of the practice, mindfulness meditation cultivates our ability to clearly see what is, while metta meditation cultivates our capacity to be with what is — and to open our hearts.

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In light of the continuing chaos in Congress and the White House, I suggest we savor summer. In reality, whether you are vacationing or not (I’m not), the pace is slower, the day is longer, the twilight is more delicious. Certainly there are deadlines, but don’t you find people are a little less stressed out about them?

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I shared this gorgeous poem by Danna Faulds in class this week, and I thought you would enjoy it, too.

With all the summer storms lately, it seems so perfect. The air is so clean and clear after all the thunder and lightening!

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I practice a form of meditation called Vipassana, which means to see things as they really are. A very ancient form of meditation, it is said to have been rediscovered by the Buddha over 2500 years ago and has been passed down by an unbroken chain of teachers to the present day.

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