This Monday January 2, we will meet in person.
See calendar for online and in person schedule here.
Address for the OHMC meditation space:
3812 Northampton St. NW
Washington DC 20015
Dear Friends,
This Monday Annie will facilitate and we will meet in person. If you’re new and want a quick refresher on the logistics of the evening, you can arrive at 6:30PM. Otherwise we will begin meditation right at 7:00PM, so please arrive a few minutes early to set up.
After our meditation period, we will consider the topic of Hope in and for the new year.
Starting a new year feels to me like a moment of hope. Things can be different! Even if we have struggled and suffered, felt alone, depressed, or like we have messed things up, we can remember that a new year is right around the corner.
As mindfulness practitioners, we do try to live in the moment as it is, but we don’t need to get stuck in thinking that things will always be this difficult.
The Buddhist teacher Roshi Joan Halifax writes that “Wise hope requires that we open ourselves to what we do not know, what we cannot know; that we open ourselves to being surprised, perpetually surprised.
Our sangha friend, dharma teacher and author Valerie Brown writes about hope in her new book Hope Leans Forward: Braving your Way toward Simplicity, Awakening, and Peace. She says:
“It’s in our capacity to see things as they are and to believe that our actions matter even if we don’t know, can’t know the outcome. We are guided by what we care about, what matters most to us, and what we can do to support healing with ourselves and in our beautiful and broken world.”
As we move into 2023, we can contemplate and reflect on these questions and Monday we can share about this or anything else that’s on your heart.
Are you open to 2023 surprising you?
Do you trust that every one of your actions matter?
What are you being guided by, or what would you like to be guided by?
Please join us Monday!