Greetings Friends: I have just changed into a summer dress as the fog has burnt away and feel the pleasure of being warm at the same time as I smell the chlorine, did they over do it today, from my swim at the local YMCA. I am reminded of the ten thousand joys and sorrows that describe our lives. Knowing it will change we are already heading towards equinox, I especially feel the delight of summer and how more of us are hanging out on the streets, in parks and cafes; our cities or towns come alive with our smiles and laughter. And then just yesterday I rolled my cart of shopping and tripped over it and found myself crying from the shock. And so also our tears. Such a stream we live and I take this opportunity to bless it: the greater stream of life and all the expressions of it that we name “me”. Blessings Blessings for this summer and fall and winter.

Please go  to the SCHEDULE  page on this site for a calendar of teachings for the year.
NOTE: NATURE SANGHA at Baker Beach, SF on August 29 from 11-1.
Contact: laurie@senseofplacelab.com  for more info. RSVP needed.

Some of us as queer/lesbian/bi/trans sangha know intimately how our particular expression is unique, beautiful and important. In this spirit we are answering the call to build more inclusion in our sangha. One of the phrases Ruth used to say at the end of a sitting as she would look at our faces is “Well I never promised you a rose garden.” And we are all ready to admit this is true. It is no rose garden. It is hard. It is messy, cumbersome and takes what seems like forever to make a decision. Do you remember how often your mind strayed when you first began to meditate. A Lot! We are learning. If this had been done in our primary, elementary and high schools we would know more. If this had been done in our work places we would know more. If this had been done in our spiritual communities we would know more.

So we are learning and learning. And how magnificent Nelson Mandela would say, to keep coming back to our vision of a heart and mind that is free and a community that supports this and reflects this, a community that is not unconsciously exclusive because we have failed to explore the places where we are habitually holding onto old notions of our selves as entitled; as white, or middle/upper class, as mid twenties to middle aged, as educated, as Christians, as non-veterans, as able bodied, or the corollary where are holding onto notions of insufficiency as people of color, queer/bi/trans, working class/poor, young/older, Jews/Buddhists/Muslims, uneducated, veterans and disabled. As we bring the light of awareness to the places we uncover the heart of love.

I feel so honored to find myself in your company and to be part of what is a heroic journey. I so look forward to working with you to build multicultural sanghas where ever we find ourselves. To facilitate this Sara Stearns and I are leading a retreat for our white sangha in New York on the weekend of September 24-26 and then Rhea Shapiro and I are leading a day in Portland on November 13. I will also be giving a talk at the Berkeley Lesbian Sangha on this subject on April 27at Epworth United Methodist Church on Hopkins St.

I am also really excited to lead a retreat with a wonderful teacher Jean Esther at Spirit Rock on May 16-23. I recently led a retreat in New Mexico for a week and it was a wonderful reminder of how deeply connected we find ourselves in a week of practice. I look forward to practicing with you there as well.

Blessings Arinna

Greetings Dear Friends,
I carried a bag of food a few nights ago and I could feel it was too heavy for me but so wanted to make it home I continued. My back responded with swelling in several places and so I am back in bed on pain meds, ice and my practice.

I have been contemplating this journey I am on and the tale Homer tells of Odysseus and the challenges he faces on his ten year voyage home and how each of us are on a journey. We are all heroines or heroes facing our many difficulties. Odysseus was held in captivity, escaped on a boat only to be driven ashore by great storms where he was captured again. My back reminds me of my journey. The outward journey of storms and capture are reflected in my own storms of fear and anxiety. Sometimes the word conquering actually feels right to describe it for it requires great energy and effort to face what is happening and the capacity to hold through with love and acceptance. And my refuge appears as the surrender to knowing I am on a journey of purification which asks of me to let go of attachment to anything other than how it is in this moment and to honor it as any heroine would.

Greetings Dear Friends:
This last month in particular I have been cocooned in bed in a medley of pain, opiates and dharma. I reflected this morning on time and how different it is when there are no outside activities that mark it’s passing such as going shopping, visiting friends or going to the bank. I have watched the departure of day into night, the moon’s traverse across the pine tree, half of it visible above the neighbors’ house, and into the lightness of day. I feel the sunshine warm me so that I undress and then dress as it passes into the afternoon and out of range of my windows. And yet there has been timelessness to these days and their unfolding. I can’t say it has always been noticed in clarity, it hasn’t mattered because even in the foggiest of minds returning to meet myself has carried me as if on a tide. A tide that has highlighted the beauty surrounding me: The flowers so sweetly and intimately dying in the vase opposite my bed, they are day lilies that have reached out and touched my wall in their orange blessings to make sure I have noticed their life and especially all those of you who have visited called, brought me food or helped me with chores. Your presence and generosity have beamed upon me who you are …each one of you…as beautiful. So I wish for us all, this New Year not bad backs! But surrender into moments of not doing and touches us of timelessness and beauty. Love Arinna

Last Sunday we sat around a table in the front courtyard of the Unitarian Church. Its large brick walls protected us from most of the wind, whose laying so long ago was taken with such care each positioned so exactly on the other. We listened to intermittent traffic and our voices speaking of faith. Some of us were Buddhist others seeking God, or just this; our talking together of a knowing, a connection, or a new love which has opened the mind to something so much bigger and … that attending to the sound of our lives. A sangha friend asked me today as we were buying spray to de- mould my newly arrived furniture, did I sing. Yes I said but not in tune, so it is mostly a private affair. But listening, that I can do everywhere. To you, to ……

Mary Oliver said it this way:

….I came, like a red bird to sing
But I am not a red bird with his head mop of flame
And the red triangle of his mouth
Full of tongue and whistles
But a woman whose love has vanished
who thinks now, too much of roots
And the dark places
Where everything is simply holding on
But this too, I believe, is a place
Where God is keeping watch
Until we rise, and step forth again and-
But wait. Be still. Listen!
Is it red bird? Or something
Inside myself singing!
(The Red Bird, Poems by Mary Oliver)