meditation

A first

~ MaryG ~ 15 Comments

I’ve mentioned (about 100 times) that I’m turning 60 this year. And so are all my friends from high school and college. We were all born in 1965–the first official year of GenX, which is usually labeled as people born from 1965 to 1980. Personally, I don’t really think 1980 belongs with us. I think GenX should be 1964-1979. We’ll take Michelle Obama and Kamala Harris (both born in 1964) and the millennials can have book-banning Ron DeSantis (born 1980), but I digress…

That’s right, the coolest generation is turning 60.

One of the coolest members of GenX—actor/writer Pamela Adlon (b. 1966)—sets her daughter straight in “Better Things”

Travel seems to be a top priority for people turning 60, but my friend Susan is doing something different for her birthday this weekend. She’s going on a silent retreat. This is a first. I’ve not heard of anyone else spending a weekend in silence for their milestone birthday. I like it though. It’s unexpected and exactly what she wants. Maybe she will have some sort of A-Ha moment that she will share with us when she gets back.

Cheryl Strayed (born in 1968) from her bestselling memoir “Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail.”

Haiku: Week One

~ MaryG ~ 9 Comments

Each new outrage sears

As they are designed to do 

If you can’t watch, breathe 

Week One of having a rapist and convicted felon in the White House has sent me back to meditation. I’m fortunate that my minister holds weekly online guided meditation for free. She talks for a bit and then we sit in shared silence, paying attention to our breathing, for about 30 minutes. When a thought pops in, I try to just notice it, then let it float away and return to my breath or mantra. The mantra I’ve been using is “Be Here Now.”

Image from Pexels

Insight Meditation

~ MaryG ~ 5 Comments
Daily writing prompt
You get some great, amazingly fantastic news. What’s the first thing you do?
View all responses

This prompt reminds me of a class I took in my twenties. I was a couple of years into the working world, living in Boston, and had that feeling like “what’s next?” or “is this all there is?” I was trying to force myself to plan my next move—perhaps moving to a different city would make things interesting? The class was called “Insight Meditation” and the teacher’s name was Narayan.

Narayan was great. She taught us the basics of mindfulness meditation from the Buddhist tradition. We focused on our breath. When thoughts arose, we tried to observe them without judgement. Inner peace and living in the present moment were the goals. Eventually, I realized that trying to force a decision about my next move was not helpful. Although I did not keep up a daily meditation practice, I still think of Narayan’s wisdom.

Be here now.

One day in class Narayan said she had received some fantastic news and was having trouble not thinking about it. She said she was too “blissed out” about it. Her point was that any type of conditional joy (joy that depends on an outside factor – like winning the lottery) is inevitably going to change. She thought that getting too happy/excited about any external circumstance could lead to even lower lows. Deep despair and overwhelming joy are related. Staying on an even keel is better. A goal of insight meditation is to develop of lasting sense of contentment and peace from sources within you.

And guess what? I googled Narayan and she’s still teaching at the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center and other organizations. She’s written a book and many of her “Dharma Talks” are online. It’s wild to find her again after all these years. I will definitely be engaging with her wisdom in this new phase of my life. I’m going to order her book today. Maybe check her out, if Buddhism or meditation is of interest to you.

Related post:

Pay attention to the journey