Dear Friends,
With the close of 2019 upon us, we reflect back and are grateful for you and all of the Opening Heart Mindfulness events that have grown our practice and brought our community together. If you haven't yet heard, we will be expanding into a beautiful new space in 2020 (3812 Northampton St. NW), where we hope to continue to water our seeds of joy, presence, and togetherness.
We offer the mindfulness teachings in the spirit of the Buddhist principle of dana, another word for generosity. Dana, a donation coming from the heart, is what has supported the teaching of mindfulness for thousands of years. None of what we do would be possible without your generosity.
Please consider a tax-deductible end-of-year donation to Opening Heart Mindfulness Community. Your donations will help to offset operational costs like rent, supplies, and trainings, and will allow us to offer additional scholarships for our annual retreat for those practitioners who need financial assistance. We are a completely separate entity from Circle Yoga and receive no financial support from them or any other organization (with the exception of a grant given specifically for Making-Visible projects from the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation).
2019 OHMC highlights
❤️ Meditation sittings
We sit together every Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
Every week, a member of our sangha volunteers their time to facilitate sittings on Monday evenings, Wednesday mornings and Friday afternoons. Our Monday facilitators provide a description of their topic, which is posted to the topic page of our site every Friday and sent via email to our subscribers every Sunday morning.
Newcomer Orientations are held the first Monday of every month.
❤️ Guest meditation teachers
Sandra Kim, dedicated to living into spiritual and social liberation in each and every moment and nurturing loving communities that support these intentions.
Sister Ocean (Hai An), visiting monastic, dedicated to bringing racial justice to the forefront of the Plum Village community.
Brother Phap Vu, visiting monastic, ordained Dharma teacher, committed to the monastic path and committed to helping individuals, communities, and the earth, along the way.
Lauren Cameron, author of The Mindful Day: Practical Ways to Find Focus, Calm and Joy, and is known for her warmth, energy and insight sharing the science of human flourishing and development.
❤️ Outside sangha gatherings
February: Facilitators Daylong Retreat, Boyce, VA
April: Walking Meditation in Honor of Earth Day, Georgetown Labyrinth, DC
October: 2nd Annual Autumn Community Picnic, Rock Creek Park, DC
❤️ Communication outreach to our community
July: Launched updated OHMC website
1183 subscribers to our email newsletter
426 followers on Facebook
124 followers on Instagram
95 emails were sent to our subscribers
52 mindfulness topics written by our Monday night meditation facilitators (published so even those who can’t attend sangha in person can make the readings a part of their practice)
❤️ Trainings offered to the sangha
January: Five Mindfulness Trainings Transmission (two people from our community received the trainings from Thich Nhat Hanh’s niece, Anh-Huong Nguyen)
October: Facilitator Training
November: Mindfulness Bell Training offered by Brigitte Pichot
❤️ Mindfulness workshops and talks
April: Overcome Self-Doubt by Annie Mahon
June: Dharma talk, Embracing and Loving all Our Seeds: The Wholesome and the Unwholesome, by Annie Mahon, at the Washington Mindfulness Community sangha
July: Mindful Parenting talk at Blue Cliff Monastery by Annie Mahon
❤️ OHMC Annual Retreat 2019
This year, our retreat was deliberately diverse in many dimensions. We recognize that by supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion, including racial and social justice equity within our sangha and throughout the mahasangha, we support the work of transformation individually and collectively.
29 total attendees
10 scholarships were given
❤️ Making-Visible
This year, Making-Visible (MV), co-volunteer led by Adriana and Annie, added two new topic areas — Indigenous People and Women. You can see the Making-Visible 2019 webinars here, with the option todonate directly to Making-Visible.
Other MV notable mentions:
July: Website launched
250 people subscribed to the MV email newsletter
4 webinars on the topic of Women
4 webinars on the topic of the Indigenous Community
We invite you to join us and be a part of these events and more in the coming year. Again, we ask for your support.
DONATE TO OHMC HERE
Wishing you calm and ease as we head into the new year.
Questions, comments, suggestions?
All are welcome to reach out to us. We’d love to hear from you!