Mainly, I’m walking from this program totally humbled and filled with profound respect for the resilience, creative capacity, and endless generosity of the people from nations that have experienced unfathomable ruptures and trauma. And I’m so grateful that I was allowed to experience such beauty and belonging as a non-Indigenous person.
I’ve come to fully appreciate that the quality of our relationships with all the life forms of this earth—other people, the trees, all the creatures, and sources of sustenance—is what matters most. And that we really can regenerate these severed relationships if we tend to them.
Traditionally, prayer flags are used to promote peace, compassion, strength, and wisdom. The Tibetans believe the prayers and mantras inscribed in the flag will be blown by the wind to spread the good will and compassion into all pervading space.
The Prayer Flag Project is a space dedicated to creating your own prayer flag as a source of solace, hope, solidarity, strength, and transformation in these challenging times.
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Throughout time, Indigenous cultures have responded to trauma and loss and restored equilibrium through expressive arts. From this perspective, we don't have to be particularly gifted to make art. And art isn't always meant to end up in a gallery or museum or on a stage. Sometimes it’s a vehicle for community and connection. In this way, art making can be a sacred ritual that returns us to ourselves and our sense of belonging. The process increases our sense of what we're capable of and what's possible.
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An interview with my beloved teachers, colleagues, friends, aunties, and all around wise women Aura Hammer and Itaf Awad.
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Johnson’s book chronicles the transformative power of friendships that are seasoned with time, effort, and awareness. The author understands not only how good friends can strengthen our sense of self, but also how they form the bedrock of healthy communities and social movements. When friendships are weak, communities suffer and social movements fizzle or collapse.
Yet, we don’t often give our friendships the attention and status they merit. We often strive wholeheartedly to be good parents or partners, but it seems we rarely ask ourselves what it means to be a good friend.
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“We can no longer bypass what’s happening to the planet,” Halifax says. “We’ve been sheared off from the old way of life in a radical and sudden way. This process of separation and dissolution is an incredible opportunity to show up with compassion and turn toward the truth of suffering and its causes of greed, hatred, and delusion.”
The magic happens as we learn to listen deeply. In this way, the circle becomes a crucible for intimacy. Intimacy is really about moving from fragmentation to integration. Intimacy is the integration of all consciousness.
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How can we involve our bodies and minds in the storytelling process? How does movement enhance understanding of self and other? How do stories give meaning to movement? What emerges in the quiet spaces and pauses between words?
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I learned so much from my conversation with Sarah this afternoon. She shared a fascinating story about how she came to discover "tree consciousness," the sustaining refuge of her work, and what it's like to be an artist in pandemic times.
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Here we introduce you to an ancient Tibetan meditation from the tantric tradition called Mentor Bonding. This meditation employs visualization to help you identify your mentors, receive their support and compassion, as well as internalize their good qualities. It is very helpful and strengthening to call upon the wisdom and affection mentors as we navigate life’s challenges.
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Going over more old photos today. Still so moved by the portraits Art Jones took of my student Ulyssa in 2015 for a contemplative arts project called SANCTUARIES. The portraits that were self-directed by the students and shot by Art with his polaroid. Something about this over the shoulder image of Ulyssa looking into the mirror has stuck with me over time.
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When it comes to ecological justice, one task at hand is to heal our severed connection with the natural world. Why would we fight for something we know next to nothing about, for someone we've never even had a meaningful conversation with?
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This week I've been going through old photos as I redesign my website. I love so many pictures from the program I developed for City as School, a transfer high school in Tribeca. The program was an eight week internship for new students, located off campus at a yoga studio in Dumbo.
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Recently, a former California police officer was generous enough to talk with me about a range of topics from his take on the Black Lives Matter movement to how police reform might mirror his own path of spiritual awakening.
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Gratitude is waking up to the fact that it's possible to be happy now. It's looking around and recognizing that what makes us happy is found in our relationships to ourselves, and to each other and to the earth.
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