Category Archives: Meditation

Book Writing Saturday: Retreat

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Instead of my regular Book Writing Saturday this week, I am on retreat. I am practicing with my fellow Open Heart Practitioners, and we are being led by our shared meditation instructor and friend, the brilliant Susan Piver. This is a virtual retreat, in part because we are scattered all across the globe, even as we are connected and practicing together.

So instead of literal book writing today, limited to four hours focused on the book, I’m doing a retreat. And yet, it has everything to do with writing this book, is structured similarly to the in person writing and meditation retreat I did with Susan in April, (and the one I’ll most likely be missing in October). There will be multiple sessions of meditation, dharma talks, and time alone to read, write, contemplate, and rest.

My word for this year was retreat. And as a practice, it’s become one of my favorite things, powerful and restorative. There’s a plan for a full week retreat at the end of Susan’s book, How Not to Be Afraid of Your Own Life: Opening Your Heart to Confidence, Intimacy, and Joy. It begins with a weekend intensive spent alone and away, along with a focused plan for the remaining five days back in your normal weekly routine. I’ve been wanting to do that one, but need to wait for a time when I feel like I can be away from my little family for an entire weekend. With the huge question mark about Dexter’s health and future, I don’t way to be away from him for that long, don’t want to leave Eric alone with that possibility.

Susan has asked those of us participating this weekend to have a book to read,  “one that supports you on your inner journey. Use your judgment and select something that will challenge you to delve within.” I am reading Brene’ Brown’s Daring Greatly. Last night, we answered a writing prompt Susan provided, and as I said earlier, there will be other blocks of time for reflecting, contemplating, and writing–becoming still and quiet, sinking down, delving deep. I suspect there will be some tears, as well as epiphanies. There usually are, when you make space for them, when you show up with an open heart.

One thing I found interesting as I prepared for retreat is that suddenly all the things I thought were so important, that had to be done before this could begin, seemed to dissolve, to no longer matter so much, even though Susan had warned us about the opposite happening, about obstacles arising the closer the retreat got. I felt like I was moving differently, slowed down, stripped down to what was important and essential, relaxing. The only “obstacle” ended up being my struggle with any type of math: I got the time zone conversion wrong, added two hours to my time instead of subtracting, so showed up late, didn’t start the retreat in “real time” with every one else. D’oh!

In my post a few days ago, I shared lyrics from an Alexi Murdoch song:

May the grace of god be with you always in your heart
May you know the truth inside you from the start
May you find the strength to know that you are a part of something beautiful.

Besides writing, contemplating, opening my heart, and meditating, opening up to this awareness is my intention for this retreat–for the grace of god to be with me always in my heart, to know the truth inside me, and to find the strength to know that I am a part of something beautiful.

Something Good

6 Replies

1. Pema Chödrön’s new book. Seriously, with this and Daring Greatly and Cultivating Courage, you’d think the Universe was totally on my side, sending me the very resources I need at exactly the right time.

2. Andrea Scher’s new website, Superhero Life. If you haven’t taken a look yet, you totally should. Her tagline is “no capes, just courage.” It’s beautiful and she has so much to offer, creative magic and other good stuff. It has my head spinning with ideas and my heart pounding with love. Her Creative Superhero interview series is soooo good. Here’s one with Rachel Cole. You know I love that well-fed woman.

3. 8 Ways You’re Wasting Your Life from Marc and Angel Hack Life.

4. This quote from John Wayne: “Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” Giddy up!

5. From Brave Girls Club, Daily Truth email, (I really needed to hear this one this week):

Dear Amazing Girl,

You have done such wonderful things, you really have. You have made differences that you don’t even know about, and you have touched lives that you have forgotten about, but that will never be forgotten by the lives you have touched. You have inspired others that you didn’t even know were watching and you have taught lessons to others that you didn’t even know you were teaching.

Please be kind to yourself, dear friend. Please take this day to see what is right about you instead of being distracted by what you think is wrong with you. Please thank your body for carrying you through your life, and thank your soul for making everything so meaningful. Please see yourself, even if just for a moment, in the absolutely cherished way that you are seen by those who love you, and especially by the One who created you.

You are far too hard on yourself. It’s time to treat yourself with the kindness that you deserve. You are just right, you are beautiful. You are capable and you are strong. Your life matters and YOU matter.

Please believe it. You are so loved.
xoxo

And, more wisdom from the same source:

Life is as crazy and harried as we allow it to be. When we want to make things special for those we love, we need to remember that what they want most is US. They want time with us. They want us to feel good and to be in a good mood and to be present. They want happy memories that include us. Sometimes this means that we must simplify so that we do not fall apart. Some times this means we need to let go of our idea of perfection and just show up AS IS.

6. What gives YOU the authority? from Alex Franzen on Unicorns for Socialism.

7. A good reason to meditate. In fact, the best reason.

Meditation practice takes place on a personal level. It involves an intimate relationship with ourselves. Great intimacy is involved. It has nothing to do with achieving perfection, achieving some absolute state or other. It is purely getting into what we are, really examining our actual psychological process without being ashamed of it. It is just friendship with ourselves. ~Chögyam Trungpa

And this quote, also from Chögyam Trungpa:

We have a fear of facing ourselves. That is the obstacle. Experiencing the innermost core of our existence is very embarrassing to a lot of people. A lot of people turn to something that they hope will liberate them without their having to face themselves. That is impossible. We can’t do that. We have to be honest with ourselves. We have to see our gut, our excrement, our most undesirable parts. We have to see them. That is the foundation of warriorship, basically speaking. Whatever is there, we have to face it, we have to look at it, study it, work with it and practice meditation with it.

8. Feel Your Pain: mini-mission from Courtney Carver at Be More With Less. Again, the Universe seems to be sending me the very things I need to read right now.

Food, pills, shopping, or your drug of choice will not heal your brokenness. You might look put together. You may even feel better, but your pain will continue to do damage. Your pain will be evident in the way you treat yourself and others, and in how you let people treat you.

9. How To Start Your Life All Over Again – Especially After Loss Or Death from Tia Sparkles on Your Life Your Way.

10. Jennifer Louden interviews Brene’ Brown about Daring Greatly.

11. This quote from Brene’ Brown: “Courage has a ripple effect. Every time we choose courage, we make everyone around us a little better & the world a little braver.”

12. More (super) power to ya! by Sherry Richert Belul on Cherry Blossom Soup. I loved this so much, so appreciate Sherry’s writing, and especially adore this line, “Laurie grabbed my hand, looked me in the eyes, and said: ‘I want you to know that this is who you are. You are the girl who can scrape the fallen pie off the ground and turn it into something delightful.’ ”

13. Brene’ Brown went on the Katie Couric show to talk about her new book. She’s so real and funny, like the best, smartest, kindest girlfriend you ever had. I could listen to her talk and tell stories for hours (and have!).

14. This is about the tattoo from Hannah Marcotti, the best tattoo story…ever.

15. Super cute dog portraits by Jessica Trinh. I dare you to look at her Flickr stream and not get a serious case of the warm and fuzzies.

16. This quote, from Geneen Roth: When we don’t allow ourselves to have what we already have, to be who we actually are, to taste what’s in our mouths, we walk around with anorexia of the soul. Always deprived, always starving for more, never able to get enough.

17. Facing the Fear of Death and Really Living Now on Tiny Buddha.

18. This quote from Cheri Huber: What we’re seeing here is how the layers of self-hate keep us from experiencing our intrinsic, inherent enlightenment. It’s simply a matter of realizing what already is. It’s not necessary for us to DO anything. What we’re seeking is available to us when we stop DOING everything else.

19. A Writer’s Manifesto from Raam Dev.

20. Nervous Christopher Maloney sings “The Rose” on XFactor.This is why things like Andrea Scher’s Cultivating Courage class and Brene’ Brown’s Daring Greatly book are so important, why the work that those women and so many others are doing, the encouragement they are giving people is so important, because without it, these sorts of voices are kept forever silent.

21. Sleepwalk with Me trailer. I really, really want to see this movie.

22. Susan Piver telling a story about the blues (as in the music), ecstasy (as in the drug), and the Buddhadharma at How I Learned It’s Complicated.

23. This quote, from Mark Nepo: How easy it is to be cruel when afraid, and how difficult it is to accept that we are all capable of terrible things, and how cleansing it is to realize that true kindness breathes just beneath this acceptance.