Loving Kindness Song – from April 1st session
Quite a number of like-minded friends gathered for Three Tuesdays Together on April 1st, 8th & 15th, 2025. We met for 30 minutes each time.
The intention for these three sessions was to provide support for one another when times are uncertain, much the same as we did during the pandemic. These gatherings are helpful when we find ourselves in much confusion and chaos, and in need of support from one another and the practice of Mindfulness.
There are video recordings of the second and third sessions (the first was not, unfortunately, recorded).
Session One: We focused on not getting overwhelmed, ways to maintain balance, and how to use friendliness and goodwill towards ourselves and one another as a practice.
We spoke about Metta, or Loving Kindness, which is one of the Brahma Viharas.
Metta can also be called friendliness or goodwill, and it isn’t just an idea. It is also a feeling and an action. We extend friendliness to ourselves and to others. When? When we feel least friendly. 🙂
We stretched and meditated and remembered that we might be the one person who could offer stability and friendliness and thereby help others to do the same.
We shared What Helps?: nature, humor, beauty, pets, family. We decided that when we act it will come from goodwill and be non-violent.
Poem: A Hopi Elder Speaks
Home practice was to look for opportunities to extend friendliness and goodwill to ourselves as well as others.
Session Two: We picked up on the importance of compassion, the second Brahma Vihara, also described as “she who hears the cries of the world”. In these times, we experience a lot of loss, not the least of which is the loss of some sense of stability in our government and safety in our communities. The suggestion is to face what is real, see and feel the consequences, but don’t slip into negativity bias and overwhelm. Act from love and groundedness.
We can’t stop the birds of sorrow from flying overhead but we can stop them from building nests in our hair 🙂
Session Three: We investigated the quality of sympathetic joy. Even in the midst of all that is, it is important to notice and celebrate JOY, ours and each others’. We laughed about how sometimes we feel jealous of another’s good fortune, but also named many of the everyday joys: children, pets, love, springtime. (You get the picture.)
So practice, pay attention, offer yourself and others goodwill, and don’t lose faith that this too, like all things, will pass. Act when you can and come from love.
Kate Mitcheom
Let’s come together in community and practice Mindfulness so that we can come to these challenging moments from a place of grounded, open-minded, and open-hearted common sense.