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Practice: Savoring Joy & Difficulties as Vulnerability Ripens Toward Kindness

It was a lovely recent evening with my MBSR students.  We were pondering the consequences of  more than a month of daily practice and the many hours in silence on the recent retreat day.   One of the folks acknowledged that somehow he was able to savor both the difficulties and pleasures of life more these days.  Another, smiled sweetly as she said, “I am feeling joy.”

My students, colleagues and in my personal experience this seems almost universal as we persist in our mindfulness practice.  We become more sensitive, more vulnerable.  As we lean in toward our life as it is right now with more of a willingness to be open.

We begin to know and feel more directly that the  immense difficulties of life are nearby; diagnoses, arguments, loss, change.  Thankfully we find that they come hand-in-hand with life’s joys; affording to feel more of that assuring hug from a loved one, an unexpected resolution or acceptance of that problem, the simple savoring of this meal, acknowledging the miracle of your dear child even when cranky,  and so much more.

There is a great deal of personal power here as we become more open and direct about our life.  The gifted researcher, Brene Brown talks about this in her TED Talk:  The Power of Vulnerability.  David Whyte also delves into this as he reads his meditation about Vulnerability.  

As we talked further that evening there was an acknowledgement that perhaps we simply begin to unfold into kindness toward ourselves and those around us.  We listened that evening to Naomi Shehab Nye’s beautiful poem, Kindness.   And also pondered Derek Walcott’s lovely poem, Love After Love.

Be well my friends.  Practice with kindness.  —  Brant