"You time" Time for you and only you. Hope you get some.

You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don’t know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don’t know who your friends are, you don’t know what you owe anybody, you don’t know what anybody owes to you. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation. At first you may find that nothing happens there. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen.
–Joseph Campbell

Life is filled with suffering, but...

Life is filled with suffering, but it is also filled with many wonders, like the blue sky, the sunshine, the eyes of a baby. To suffer is not enough. We must also be in touch with the wonders of life. They are within us and all around us, everywhere, any time.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

We really are all dependent on each other

This video is only a couple of minutes long and really is a must see. sigh.. such beauty and magnificence captured on film. Love the bats!

"The affairs of the world will go on forever. Do not delay the practice of meditation." -Milarepa

In a group, alone, while eating, while walking...make friends with yourself.

Why we practice

The question we need to ask ourselves is whether there is any place we can stand in ourselves where we can look at all that’s happening around us without freaking out, where we can be quiet enough to hear our predicament, and where we can begin to find ways of acting that are at least not contributing to further destabilization.
–Ram Dass
Thanks to Parabloa magazine for the quote

I've been at births and I have had a loved one die in my arms and...

Finally someone else speaks of the correlation between birth and death. I have never been to a birth that hasn't reminded me of that moment when my grandma took her last breath in my arms. Its not morbid or sad in anyway. It is real life and is something that we will all face both at the beginning and end of our lives. 
Thank you Dancing Star Birth for posting this video on your Facebook Page today. Poignant and touching, this video chronicles the last days of the life of a man named Lord Gould. He says that when you really know you are about to die "Life screams at you in its intensity". Let us not be afraid to die or afraid to live while we are here. Namaste friends.  

Is pain a part of your life? It can help to understand it. This vid is 5 minutes long. And remember to keep breathing.

Changing our relationship to pain.

I ♥ Thich Nhat Hanh. We don't want to miss our life.

“The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.” -Thich Nhat Hanh

"Meditation practice isn't about trying to throw ourselves away or become something better. It's about befriending who we are already." - Pema Chodron

Whether you believed in his politics, or not...

Jack Layton was greatly loved by Canadians. RIP Jack Layton. 1950-2011

This past Saturday (less than 48 hours before he died), Jack Layton penned a very moving two page letter to Canadians. The letter can be found here.

Politics aside here are a just a couple of excerpts:

“Unfortunately, my treatment has not worked out as I hoped,” he wrote. “So I am giving this letter to my partner Olivia to share with you in the circumstance in which I cannot continue.”

To other Canadians who are on journeys to defeat cancer and to live their lives, I say this: please don’t be discouraged that my own journey hasn’t gone as well as I had hoped. You must not lose your own hope. Treatments and therapies have never been better in the face of this disease. You have every reason to be optimistic, determined, and focused on the future. My only other advice is to cherish every moment with those you love at every stage of your journey, as I have done this summer.

My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world." -August 20 2011-Jack Layton 1950-2011

Life is so beautiful and precious. Stop, sit, breathe and take it all in..

The more you sense the rareness and value of your own life, the more you realize that how you use it, how you manifest it, is all your responsibility. We face such a big task, so naturally we sit down for a while.

-Kobun Chino Otogawa (乙川 弘文 , 1938—2002)

Beginnings are often scary

Beginnings are often scary, endings are often sad, but it's the middle that counts. You should remember that when you find yourself at the beginning - Steven Rogers