January 18, 2011
I woke up a little out of it today so I listened to a talk about loving kindness meditation otherwise referred to as metta practice.  Since my divorce, I have been a journey to heal and find a spiritual practice that feels "right" so I have been working on mindfulness meditation which comes from the Buddhist tradition but has been translated into a more simple practice for this culture.  I try to meditate 5 times a week for at least 20 minutes.  It has been helpful for me to learn how to be less reactive to situations.  It can be particularly helpful with two pre-teen children.  My children were fighting this morning about silly stuff and I asked them to stop.  They continued so I told them they would need to walk to school which is about 11/2 miles.  My son was late to school and my daughter wasn't too happy about it.  I find parenting humbling.  There are times that I feel like I am on the right track and then there are other times when I am not too sure about what I am doing.  Was it "right" for me to have them walk to school or would it have been better to do something else.  One of the challenges of being a single parent is not having somebody to bounce if off of.  This evening I went to my meditation group (also referred to as my sangha).  We sat for 30 minutes and then had a discussion about the first noble truth which is there is suffering.  I see people learning how to work with the pain in their lives by not running away from it but experiencing it and feeling it.  From reading other people blogs, I can see that there is a richness in spiritual expression.