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Breathe:

More Kindness for Ourselves and Each Other

Mama Earth gets a mammogram

4/24/2017

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PictureImage: Earth from space, Blue enrobed with abundant ice on South pole, Apollo 17, 1972, NASA, https://www.nasa.gov/content/blue-marble-image-of-the-earth-from-apollo-17
Mama Earth gets a mammogram
 
she gets up with the sun
for her appointment
and has to take two buses
 
on the second one, she stands holding onto the strap
and the young people glowing into their screens
don't offer her a seat
 
she gets up slowly
with a rocking motion that propels the great globe
of her belly forward
with an audible sigh
 
the driver kneels the bus down
taking pity on her slow progress
aluminum walker with split tennis balls on the hooves
 
she looks around with the sun
squinting at an angle into her eyes
cradled by their rivers
carved by years of laughing and concentrating
to puzzle through
 
sees the semicircular driveway and metallic windows
and shuffles her bulk
through the door to information
 
spells out her name
for the unfazed ponytailed volunteer
chewing gum
who sends
Ms. Earth
to mammography
without looking up
 
the plates are cold
and seem to smash her breast
between them
with unnecessary force
 
her breath tightens and catches
against the pressure
but that's been going on for a while now
like a century
 
she hasn't had time to get it checked out
so many other fires to put out
the job she has seems always to take more than 24 hours in a day
if that's possible
and never came with the kind of insurance or sick days
that would allow her time to get her lungs checked
 
it's harder to remember details these days
but it seems like she hasn't had a raise
since the Rockies popped up
mmmmm, that was a hard birth, too
 
the tech asks her to switch breasts
and the plates descend again
 
she heard through the grapevine
there was this new preventative care plan
free mammograms every year
or in her ancient case
eon
 
she doesn't know what she'll do with a positive result
a biopsy sounds not only painful but expensive
and she doesn't know if it's covered
the little she'd been saving for retirement
disappeared in the
crash
 
the tech’s eyes behind her glasses
look concerned
mama knows the tech isn't really allowed
to tell her anything
but those women are always the first to know
 
she hopes it's not too serious
and if they do find something
that it's not
too late
 
Reba Connell, Berkeley, California, USA, 37.9° N, 122.3° W, June 2013, Cenozoic era



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Water is Medicine

12/13/2016

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Picture

“Mni Pejuta: water is medicine and Mni Wiconi: Water is Life,’ says Wakinyan LaPointe, Lakota community organizer. ‘In our Lakota way, it is our responsibility to strengthen our relationship with water.’”

Modern research continues to affirm indigenous wisdom, that water is one of our most useful medicines. Water can improve energy, mood, anger, concentration, and focus. The brain is very sensitive to small changes in levels of water in the body. Water is vegan, free, and in most cases comes with few side effects. You can do an experiment on yourself.

Like many of you, I've been deeply moved by what is happening at Standing Rock. Lakota Sioux have been joined by hundreds of indigenous nations from the Americas and the world, as well as other people of conscience called to protect the water, support the rights of our First Nations to their sacred ground and water and to protect the earth from from further global warming.

I read that the water protectors received word that the police had put out a list of requests including granola bars, energy drinks, soda, and warm clothing and gloves. The indigenous water protectors were the ones to respond to the police request.  They said, we gave them everything they asked for except for the soda and energy drinks, because water is life.

If you are moved to do more to support the water protectors, the current request is to contact the banks funding the pipeline.

In socially engaged mindfulness, we may engage with full energy but not attach to the results of our actions. 2 unexpected healings at Standing Rock were forgiveness ceremonies from the church and the military over the 500-year history of colonialization.

For heart-opening images, see a video clip of the 13 year-old Lakota Sioux girl, who had started the Standing Rock petition, after a successful goverment response to her efforts,  and images of the elders from many Native nations who gathered as water protectors.

Thank you. Water is life. Mni Wiconi. Water is Medicine.



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Water Meditation

11/29/2016

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Picture
Noticing a desire for water.

The desire may be experienced as a dryness in the mouth, an interest in the mind, a feeling of fatigue, or a cue -- of the morning, a meal, or a workout that reminds you of water.

Filling a drinking vessel with cold, room temperature, or hot water. Noticing the sound of the water as it fills your cup. Noticing how listening to the sound is experienced in the emotions and the body.

If you like, adding tea, lemon or anything else, or just drinking your plain, pure water.

Feeling the weight of the drinking vessel in your hand. Noticing the temperature of the water that is conveyed from the cup to your hand.

Looking at the water and seeing what you notice.

Telling your water, "I love you."

If you like, contemplating the sources of your water. Remembering or imagining where your water comes from to arrive at your cup. Does it come from a reservoir? Is it fed by a glacier, does it come from a river in the Sierras or other mountains? Noticing what you know and what you don't know. You may pray or send good thoughts to the sources of your water.

You may notice gratitude for being in that portion of humanity  that has running water in their home.

Smelling the water and noticing what you notice.

Taking a drink and noticing the temperature of the water in the mouth and the temperature of the water as it travels into your body.

Noticing that the water in your cup joins the water you are.


With a deep bow to the Lakota Sioux teen girls and elder women, traditional allies of water through the flow, who are leading the way and teaching us how to pray for and honor water. Thank you to the Ohlone people for the land where I sit and write. Please accept humble apologies for any misunderstandings of the teachings.




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Fingers and Forgiveness on September 11

9/19/2016

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Picture
I heard a great teaching story from Sufi mystic, spiritual leader and professional musician Imam Yassir Chadly about how all of us – yes, including spiritual leaders, can be vulnerable to reactivity, and can transform our reactivity into forgiveness.

Imam Chadly was speaking at the Open-Faith Salon, at Jewish meditation center Chochmat HaLev in Berkeley at an event, “Ecumenical Exploration of Forgiveness,” exploring forgiveness from Jewish, Muslim/Sufi, Christian and native Hawaiian perspectives. The Open-Faith Salon is dedicated to the memory and legacy of our beloved teacher –- African-American, queer, deeply feminist, leader in Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities -- Sheikh Ibrahim Farajajé, “whose work to build bridges between different faith communities remains an inspiration to all who seek to create peace and understanding through interfaith dialogue,” according to the Open Faith Salon.


Picture
Imam Chadly talked about being cut off by another driver. Like many of my favorite spiritual teachers, he made us laugh with clear observations, like noticing how difficult it is to drive at 5 in the evening “because everyone is hungry.” Reflecting on being cut off by the driver, he gave a concise and beautiful teaching about the impermanence of our thoughts and feelings, saying "I was very upset  because at the time I was very important."

I was very upset  because at the time I was very important.
Picture
When the other driver gave him the finger, he responded in kind, and then immediately felt regret for his behavior and wanted to find the other driver to apologize. But the other driver had already gone, “so I had to give it to the One who has no beginning and no end”.

Imam Chadly suggests that we establish an annual Finger Day. “First time you wake up in the morning, give someone the finger. Then you buy a Hallmark Finger Day card. Next week, someone gives you the finger, you say, ‘Oh, sorry, that was last week. You're late.’ ”


Picture
Knowing how people are, I can only imagine the responses to someone else hearing that they are too late for Finger Day. Yet telling MYSELF that I'm too late for Finger Day could be brilliant.

This warm and funny teaching reminds me of a classic intervention around worry, which is to schedule the worry. The assignment is to worry every day for example between 5 and 5:30. When worry arises at other times, the reminder is, oh, it's not the right time, Worry Time will be at 5 o'clock.

Happy Finger Day!




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    Author

    Reba Connell teaches Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindful Eating classes in the Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland.

    She has completed several levels of study in teaching Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, including a professional training program under the direction of Dr. Saki Santorelli and Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn and a training in teaching Mindful Eating, through UCSD.

    She is deeply engaged with science-based and traditional approaches to healing through food and self-care. Her trainings include Food As Medicine; The Gut Brain; and Preventing and Managing Chronic Inflammation: Special Focus: Nutritional Interventions.  She has been practicing meditation and yoga since 1999.

    Finding mindfulness, movement, and food to make big differences in her own healing from chronic pain, she feels called to share what she is learning with others and to help people make their own discoveries. She is committed to a feminist approach that honors all body shapes and sizes while collaborating in radiant wellness.

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