Category Archives: August Break

#augustbreak2013 Day 13

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Home

This concept is always a bit tricky for me, as there are two places I consider home: Colorado and Oregon.

homeI love our little house, our little life in Fort Collins, with the gardens in front and back, the lilacs along the fence and by the mailbox, the trees we’ve planted and the ones now gone that we still remember, the Rocky Mountain Bee Plants that surprised us one year and return each spring to feed the riot of bees, the hardwood floors and the patterned plaster ceilings, the elementary school around the corner and our favorite park so close. The layout of the house is almost exactly like the one I grew up in, and I love that, loved that house, that home too. One reason it will be difficult to let this one go now, if we ever do, is that two of my dogs died here, and as weird as it might sound, that is a precious thing.

oceanviewAnd yet, half my heart still lives in Oregon, splitting its time between the Willamette Valley and the Central Oregon Coast.

samonthecouchBut the truest home I have is this: home is where my dog is (dogs are), and wherever that is, he’s (they’re) probably with Eric, so even better.

#augustbreak2013 Day Twelve

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Far Away

I am a member of the Open Heart Project, created by the kind and wise Susan Piver “to make it really, really easy to learn to meditate, find support for an ongoing practice, and connect with a community of like-minded practitioners who seek to live with wisdom, compassion, and courage.” Susan offers both a Basic and Member option for the program, and every Monday morning, Susan sends those of us who are Members a video that discusses our theme for the week (the above picture is of this morning’s talk). We also have access (as do those involved at the Basic level) to an archive of wisdom and meditation instruction videos of varying lengths.

Every day I practice with a teacher and a sangha that is far away. Each morning, I sit at my writing desk, go to Susan’s website or open one of her emails, lean my phone against my little shrine, and hit “play.” The distance between us is only physical, geographic, because Susan and the Open Heart Project are actually quite close to me, a constant presence, a very real community. Every morning we practice together, each moment we offer each other support in our practice (on and off the cushion), and we are connected even though “they” are far away.