MaW session 19th June 2021

A great again today - Adrienne introduced her Loving Kindness practice with a quote from Albert Einstein:

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

Bev took a writing prompt from the poem

LIFE IS THE POEM

by Kay Carmichael

          He continues quick and dull in his clear images; 

          I continue slow and sharp in my broken images. 

          ...

          He in a new confusion of his understanding; 

          I in a new understanding of my confusion.            Robert Graves

to try is a mistake

it is better

to wander through paths of uncertainty

to taste surreptitiously

to smell the faint perfume 

of unorthodoxy

to savour an error

time stretches and contracts

to meet our longings

not to wrap in plastic

the thoughts that conflict

new understanding of my confusion 

Kay shared a link with us:

Poetry and Settled Status for All - a Call for Submissions

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And now for some of 

YOUR WRITING:

‘New Confusion of My Understanding’

by Judith Boardman

I thought I understood, had it all clear in my mind – the past, the present, the future, a linear explanation. Persistently looking back at past mistakes, regrets, missed opportunities. Hoping that the future would be different, that what I had learnt would influence decisions and actions to come. I barely noticed the here and now, my breathing, my feet on this solid earth; hardly took heed of this precious moment. But now my understanding of has been shaken. As the snow globe fragments settle, I’m coming to realise that now is all that matters, all there really is. Time does not exist. Is this confusion? Am I throwing up into the air all that I felt sure of, everything that once seemed clear? No, not confusion, but a fresh clarity and perspective on what is important. Focus on now, it is the only reality we have. The dwelling on the past is what brings confusion, along with the anxiety of what is to come in these uncertain times. Be present, it’s enough.

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Thanks to you all ...

... for your heartening feedback as always!

Jules: It's sunny and breezy in west Wales..

Kay: can't believe this is the last    these meditations have given me so much strength these last few weeks   thankyou so much  kx

Jules: I'm sorry Einstein but . I cannot embrace the bluebottle that bombarded me all through that. The equivalent of a jet ski with wings bouncing off every surface...

Beccy: :D

Jules: Love it Beccy!

Hilaire _: That was profound Adrienne, thank you!

nicholevilleneuve: I have to leave early today, sorry I’ll miss the last of the writing. Thanks very much for the opportunity to be involved in the past 6 weeks of wonderful mindfulness and writing. Very best wishes to 

Bev: (prompt) new understanding of my confusion

Kath: Mark Nepo

clairebolger: I like the comparison of being able to live with uncertainty because we embrace uncertainty in the act of writing a poem. Thanks Kath.

Beccy: powerful and I could feel myself there

Beccy: great metaphor for life!

Kath: Wonderful, Beccy!

Kath: sharp-tongued/long grass - love it

Judith: I liked the 'go through the thorny bush not around it' - good advice

Jules: Wonderfully powerful Catrice..

Jules: Wow Calire!

Beccy: I love how it captures this big idea in just a few lines

Jules: remembering only what we need to say..

Beccy: love that - a good reminder that it is all a gift

Helen: thanku everyone for sharing this space and time.

Judith: Thank you for letting me share this time with you. I have been humbled and overwhelmed by your wonderful words.

Catrice: Thank you.

Louise: To Adrienne and Bev, and all here in our connected kindness  - thank you for these sessions. A calm inspiring wholeness amongst my whirlings.

Kay: thankyou bev Adrienne and everyone    hope to see you all again soon    kx

Kath: I have loved all your smiling faces and affirmations, making this such a safe space. Thanks to everyone of you!

Sheila: Thank you everyone this has gladdened my heart ❤️

Beccy: Thank you - I've grown fond of all your faces so quickly x

Angie: Thank you for a wonderful session. Have a wonderful weekend. xx

Fenella: for me, the mindfulness is an essential component as it frees the mind to do the unexpected, for good or not!

Helen: thanku to Bev and Adrienne for providing such a special safe plavce

Jules: Thankyou I hope to join in some more morning sessions. And would like to be able to connect with all the wonderful women here

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Thanks to funders

Lapidus Scotland gratefully acknowledges the support of Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership via the Wellbeing for Longer in Glasgow Fund managed by Impact Funding Partners

MaW session 12th June 2021

Another powerful session: Adrienne introduced her Mindfulness with the support of Sound practice with 

The Sound of the Sea

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The sea awoke at midnight from its sleep,

  And round the pebbly beaches far and wide

  I heard the first wave of the rising tide

  Rush onward with uninterrupted sweep;

A voice out of the silence of the deep,

  A sound mysteriously multiplied

  As of a cataract from the mountain's side,

  Or roar of winds upon a wooded steep.

So comes to us at times, from the unknown

  And inaccessible solitudes of being,

  The rushing of the sea-tides of the soul;

And inspirations, that we deem our own,

  Are some divine foreshadowing and foreseeing

  Of things beyond our reason or control. 

Bev offered two possible writing prompts from the poem Summer Farm by Norman MacCaig

with metaphysic hand I lift the lid and see

or

a hen stares at nothing with one eye

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And now for some of 

YOUR WRITING:

With metaphysic hand I lift the lid…

by Claire Bolger

With metaphysic hand I lift the lid and see memories of others calling out to me. They got deposited there over time, many footfalls on stairs, bringing their offerings to the attic of my mind. Left there for safe keeping. A sanctuary of sorts. I play them back through me when I walk the sands of my time. Take in the sea as it pushes at my toes and listen. I go deeper in, let it bathe me, paddling all the way to the end of the line. And there I see another creature like me on the sand. Seal eyes that are open to the depths.

Inspired by Norman McCaig, from Summer Farm

by Beccy Golding

“A hen stares at nothing with one eye”

… but with the other it examines the ground for seeds and grit that will help it grow shells to form around the eggs it will hatch. Our pet hen, Cassie, would sometimes lay eggs with soft shells, held together by the inner sac, surface tension just holding, like a pond with water boatmen skating. She’d lay double yolks too sometimes, and race us to the back door when we opened her run – racing to the dog food in the kitchen. Sometimes I’d hold a half bitten Malteser between my teeth and she’d peck at the honeycomb. Peck, peck, gauging her peck with one eye, still accurate, and one eye staring at nothing, or something, the blue of the sky before it falls in, the missile, the meteor, the comet, ready to cluck and scrabble, the same way she did – she could never contain herself – the same way she would announce an egg she had laid, and I would wonder, if ever she could keep a secret, maybe she could brood her egg and hatch it, maybe there would be a chick. But she was not a secret keeper, proclaiming her eggs, dashing for doors, pecking for food. As a chick we kept her in a kitchen drawer with a layer of newspaper, and even when she had a garden to scrabble in she’d run to a newspaper and scuff and peck the newsprint. Maybe she was reading all the news that was in the world, with one eye down and one eye to the sky.

untitled

by Kath Higgens

Afraid of where a thought might take me

I sink down into my body

ably guided by a gentle voice.

How good it feels to have a companion

in this dark and lonely place.

I hear the starlings scrabbling on the tin roof,

I look out afar at mountains, still and stately.

How much safer it is to stay with these

sounds and sights that save me from my thoughts.

Remember, I tell myself, with all the compassion I can  muster,

to return again and again over the next hours

to this safe place, this body, this sensate location – 

afraid of where a thought might take me

a hen stares at nothing (after Norman MacCaig)

by Hilaire

her egg coddling inside her

not yet ready to enter the world

the jelly shell trembling towards crisp solidity

albumen and yolk still considering

their yin and yang relationship

mother hen withholding her cluck

paused in her sifting for food

as a sunbeam lights on a likely patch

for settling

for puffing of feathers

and laying of plans.

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Thanks to you all ...

... for your heartening feedback as always!

Kay: thankyou me   thankyou Adrienne   thankyou everyone

Kay: perfect

Joyce: thank you Adrienne  -  you are wonderful xxx

Jules: Lovely and soothing Adrienne...

Kath: thank you to our two wonderful facilitators

Adrienne: Thank you everyone

Hilaire: That was wonderful Adrienne - thank you

Bev: with metaphysic hand I lift the lid and see or a hen stares at nothing with one eye

Jules: That's amazing Angie, and I believe God is in all..

Beccy: Fab - love it!

Beccy: love the list

Kath: Lovely, Angie

Helen: beautiful...the jeans of my ancestors, and the eves pudding..wonderful

Hilaire: Love that Angie!

Jules: So powerful Cath..

Helen: Sorry about that Bev

Lesley: really powerful Cath, loved the line about the sword of war thrust into innocent hearts. x

Joyce: brilliant Beccy x

Jules: Wonderful Beccy. I want hens!

Adrienne: me too

Helen: really good journey that too us on..hung on every word..Beccy

Beccy: love the sum up in the last line

Jules: That is so simple but deep Sally..

Helen: many footfalls on stairs...haunting

Jules: beautiful Claire..

Beccy: my mind created beautiful images listening to that.

Beccy: "the panic of surviving" - great line

Lesley: Claire, loved that, especially memories of other calling out to me..and the footfall on the stairs. x

Beccy: so many amazing words in there!

Kath: Lovely, Kay

Jules: You took me on that journey with you kay, the scudding swallows.. fabulous!!

Jules: Ive lost sound again will rejoin..

Helen: beautiful endings

Jules: All these poems are worthy of an anthology....

Jules: Thank you another great session. 

Joyce: thankyou xx I will miss you all next week  -  go well xx

Angie: thank you everyone for a wonderful morning. xx

Kay: wonderful session   thanks to everyone   kx

Helen: wonderful...thanks for all your sharing and support

Hilaire: Thank you everyone! That’s set me up for the rest of the day

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Thanks to funders

Lapidus Scotland gratefully acknowledges the support of Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership via the Wellbeing for Longer in Glasgow Fund managed by Impact Funding Partners

MaW session 29th May 2021

Today's mindfulness practice was Loving Kindness and Adrienne introduced it with the poem Kindness

Naomi Shihab Nye.

Bev introduced the writing with Emily Dickinson's poem:

If I can stop one heart from breaking

If I can stop one heart from breaking,

I shall not live in vain;

If I can ease one life the aching,

Or cool one pain,

Or help one fainting robin

Unto his nest again,

I shall not live in vain.

Our writing prompt was 

I shall not live in vain

Many thanks to Kath and Helen for sending various Emily Dickinson links:

Coincidentally Emily was this week's Brain Pickings offering

This is the book of Envelope poems

The Dickinson series

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And now for some of 

YOUR WRITING:

I will not live in vain

by Judith Boardman

I will not live in vain.

I'll make the soup, and wash the dishes.

Buy the birthday gift, and bake the cake.

Spread the icing, let them lick the bowl.

Bathe the grazed knee, wrap them in my arms.

Change the nappy, put away the toys.

Read the bedtime story, sing the lullaby.

Offer her an ear when things go wrong.

Clean her house, and hang the washing out.

Give kindness in abundance, offer love,

and even when her cruel words

cut deep and cause me pain,

I'll rise again with self-love.

I will not live in vain.

I shall not live in vain...

by Julia Angell

as long as I care

I can carry on

if I can care for everyone

every one

whether near or far

buttercup or bee

if I can see

that care means hope

then there is hope for me.

(untitled)

by Hilaire

a pebble dropped in a pond

does not see its ripples

as it settles into the soft receiving mud

but the ripples spread out

a leaf rocks

a bird dips its beak

catches an insect 

a child counts the ripples

remembers the pebble

lets it settle in her heart

a small memory

spreading through her life ahead

Counting Hearts

by Bev Schofield

A virus they called,

flayed us with numbers too alarming

to be meaningful people.

Confused and obedient we huddled down

under the hurtling hands of the clock saying

“it’s okay, we’ll wait what difference can we make?”

Till suddenly

silently

in numbers too small to count

our hearts began to break.

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Thanks to you all ...

... for your heartening feedback as always!

Julia: Everywhere here has two names we are St Dogmaels and Llandudoch... 

Candyce: Today 2 AM is getting to me.  I think I need to go back to bed.  Happy writing!  I’ll see you next week.

Sheila: Unexpected visitor so will leave now.  Happy writing. Ps. I’m happy xx

Kath: Thank you Adrienne. That was wonderful.

Kay: so powerful Adrienne   thankyou    kx

Julia: fell asleep!

Judith: Very powerful Adrienne, and most welcome. x

Michele: Thank you Adrienne, always find the lovely kindness meditation to be powerful, this was very good.

Adrienne: thanks everyone x

Bev: I shall not live in vain

Julia: Wow! Well stitched thatch we call home...

Kath: Love those last 2 lines Cartrice!

Beccy: I love the planting of the seed section

Catrice: Thank you!

Claire: Politely leave all the parts of my life behind ,  Wow

Julia: Amazing ending! Powerful! 

Catrice: That was GORGEOUS Angie!

Julia: Beautiful...

Claire: Galaxies of humanities

Catrice: Excellent, Beccy!

Helen: ive stayed so others can leave...wow

Catrice: Iconic poem, Beccy!

Hilaire: Very powerful Kath!

Julia: Emotions, letting go, very wise..

Kath: So simple and thoughtful Julia

Kath: Lovely insect imagery, Claire

Beccy: Dickinson: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8518136/

Joyce: wonderful Lesley  - love your list !

Julia: Love the list. lesley

Julia: That's wonderful !

Catrice: POWERFUL, KAY!!!!!

Lesley: Kay, I loved  the image of your cooing, loving  wood pigeons.

Beccy: Kay I enjoyed the journey with the birds and at the end you bought us back to the prompt.

Julia: I want to give Sally a hug!

Lesley: Joyce, I loved your line 'recovery is found in the kindness of others.'.

Helen: flare your nostrils to the lavender....I will I will..thanks

Kath: Love hold the line, Bex

Joyce: hold the line ! love it bex

Julia: Someone said, Letting go and it's so important to do that..

Beccy: I really appreciate the strength and importance of your feelings Fenella. I've found today strongly emotional too x

Kay: as always a wonderful powerful emotional session   thankyou to everyone

Helen: Thanks for all your sharing today

Angie: thank you to everyone for a wonderful morning

Julia: Thank you and love from St Dogmaels x

Lou: lovely share adrienne

Joyce: thankyou xx

Hilaire: Thanks everyone for another wonderful session. xx

Lou: rounds all the care and share and words of our morning xx

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Thanks to funders

Lapidus Scotland gratefully acknowledges the support of Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership via the Wellbeing for Longer in Glasgow Fund managed by Impact Funding Partners