Hello Friends,
The Purple Martins who summer on Haycock Point where I live have just departed, only to return next spring as they always do.
Their migration begins around July and peaks in August. It’s a long, arduous journey from their breeding grounds in North America to their winter habitats in South America.
I realize that the season I so love is beginning to wind down and soon fall will be upon us.
Purple Martin Migration
Attending to the gradual nature of transitions can be fruitful for Mindfulness practice.
Day doesn’t suddenly become night, and summer doesn’t suddenly become fall.
Purple Martins don’t reach the Amazon in a moment!
Watching transitions mindfully can offer a sense of continuity, rather than “Where did it all go?” Noticing subtle changes (happening around us all the time) grounds us in the present.
We might invite attunement with it, find awe in the inevitable. It engages us in being fully alive.
Nature helps, by the way: gardens change, the light changes, migrating flocks pass, and day by day the cells of our bodies grow just a bit older. It can be delightful (despite the aches and pains) to notice and savor the changes.
For this and the next 2 months, I will be sharing monthly messages with you about how to use Mindfulness practice to deepen the experience of transition, and not miss a moment of our lives.
So, more to come in the next two months about practicing in and with transitions.
I wish you ease as we begin together the transition to fall.
xoxo,
Kate
“Dropping In”
A practice to arrive in the here and now
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When I was training to teach MBSR, the teachers would say “just drop in.”
I always wondered what that was until I realized that it was easy and accessible. I felt it in my mind, body and soul.
What you do is first, just pause the action. Simply…stop. Turn your attention from out in the world to inside yourself.
Feel your feet on the ground. Feel your breath. What is in your view? What sounds do you hear…RIGHT HERE? RIGHT NOW.
That’s what “just drop in” means.
You come into the present, see what is real, and make a choice about how to proceed from a quieter, inner place of wisdom.
Try it anytime, anywhere.
A song, if you missed it above: