Monday, February 7, 2011

When we are mindful....

"When we are mindful, deeply in touch with the present moment, our understanding of what is going on deepens, and we begin to be filled with acceptance, joy, peace and love." Thich Nhat Hanh

When I was ordained, one of the gifts given to me by the Conference UCW women (I believe) was a small egg timer. The note with it invited me to set it on my desk and throughout the day, in the midst of my busyness, to turn it over and take a moment to breath and re-present myself in the day. I loved the idea of this and dutifully placed the timer on my desk, as suggested. The problem, of course, was that I was usually so busy that I didn't have time to even think about the egg timer, never mind turn it over and watch the sand drift through to the other side. In reality, it probably would have done me more good in my kitchen, keeping my eggs from getting too hard! But I still like the idea of taking moments in my day to stop, breath, reconnect myself to God and ground my work in the Spirit's guiding. So for those of you who think this sounds like a wonderful idea but don't have the time to remember to flip an egg timer, I invite you to go to http://www.mindfulnessdc.org/ where, near the bottom of the home page you will find an invitation to "Download a FREE mindful clock for your PC". Once downloaded this Tibetan chime can be set to ring hourly, every 15 minutes or randomly throughout the day. So as you go about your work the chime automatically rings to remind you to take some centering time. For me, it has been like a little burst of joy every time it rings. And as an added bonus, the mindfulness clock can also be set to ring at what ever interval you want to draw you back from a meditative sit.

May this gift from the Buddhist community fill us all "with acceptance, joy, peace and love."

Shalom
Ivy

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