Jun 15/16 — Abundance - Not acquiring more, but noticing more.

This isn’t about having enough — it’s about perceiving the fullness already here. With everything in bloom around us, we’ll open our senses to the richness the season is offering.

Jun 18/19 — Trust - Seeds underground. Roots deepening without our watching.

So much of what matters is growing in the dark, without our interference. We’ll sit with the quiet courage of trust — in the body, in the process, in what we cannot see.

Last Week is below….

Jun 8/9 — Surrender - The flower doesn’t force itself open.

There is a kind of releasing that isn’t giving up — it’s giving over. We’ll explore what it means to loosen the grip, to stop managing what doesn’t need managing, and to trust the unfolding.

Jun 11/12 — Attention - Beginner’s mind in high summer.

The garden you’ve walked past all week — have you really seen it? We’ll practice looking at the familiar as if for the first time, and discover how attention itself is a form of love.

Mondays and Tuesdays share (different audiences) … same with Thursday/Friday. The Monday session gets recorded on a Zoom midday and gets posting on my YouTube meditation channel …. Simply Presence

The index of the scripts is also updated weekly … Click here to get the post with the updated index link.

Ferns everywhere. Almost too many. You can have too much of a good thing. Lot of miscellaneous green things and blooming things arranged in no particular way other than forming a border around the grass.

But in the midst of the chaotic array of greenery, there emerged this:

I have never attempted to grow a bearded iris and not sure I’ve ever taken the time before to study one. Stunningly beautiful flower. The yard feels a bit shinier now.

This find capped off a string of simple discoveries in May. At the beginning of the month, I wrote in my journal the intention of presence as a daily focus. What I have found over the course the month and now into June is that very deliberately slowing down reveals things that have been sitting right in front of me. Getting old isn’t such a bad thing. I’m finding options now that probably were not available even just a few years ago.

At the end of my movement classes, we stand still(ish) for a few minutes and close with a little wisdom bit. Yesterday’s was this from author Ann Patchett:

“Never be so focused on what you’re looking for that you overlook the thing you actually find.”

Indeed.

Link to that is here —> Jim's last 70+ meditations

Already Here - A Meditation on Presence

But let’s go back to that team dinner. While this is not a plug for them, the catering spread from Qdoba was quite spectacular. I picked it up and we did our own setup but the service was spot on, the food was great and everyone enjoyed it.

As players departed, we were left with … well … leftovers. Not a massive amount, but certainly enough the overwhelmed the limited refrigeration we have in our temporary housing (our home renovation is going into the home stretch .. looking forward to being back HOME!). Leftovers. We’re not strangers to leftovers. I cook nearly every day and have for years. The large family gatherings have trimmed way down and we’re still mastering tapering down the amount of food to prepare. In my defense, though I prepare something every night, the head count at the supper table is hardly a fixed number and I continue to err on the side of plenty to go around.

Leftovers pro tip …. I took all the leftovers (beef, chicken, salsa, salsa verde, black beans, pinto beans, pico de gallo) and chucked them into pot. Added a single can of mild Rotel, a can of tomato paste, and about a cup of beef broth and just let it simmer for an hour or so. Pretty minimal effort turned out to be the best chili I’ve had in years. Leftovers cleared. Refrigeration space restored.

Leftovers for the win!

Mindful Movement - grounded in qigong, but drawing from other movement practices, this is gentle movement harmonized with the breath.

Meditation - guided meditations on a wide array of topics - topics tend to mirror things going on in my own life.

Moving for Better Balance - this one doesn’t show up on schedules because it runs in 12 week cycles and requires advance registration. Evidence based balance training to reduce fall risk. Centers around 8 modified Tai Chi forms from the Yang 24 form set.

Formats for each of these are my own and happy to share. All material I share is free to use and modify to suit your needs. Schedule below. See my pinned article for links to resources here, on Google Drive, and YouTube.

We’re taking this opportunity to do some time alignments. This applies ONLY to the Monday and Friday classes at the River Shores branch. Classes at the Feith Family branch and Moving for Better Balance at Feith and West Washington remain as is.

Old Schedule:

Mondays - Meditation @ 8 am, Mindful Movement @ 8:45 am.

Fridays - Meditation @ 9:30 am, Mindful Movemment @ 10 am.  

New Schedule begins May 11th

Mondays - Meditation @ 8:30 am, Mindful Movement @ 9:15 am

Fridays - Meditation @ 8:30 am, Mindful Movement @ 9:15 am + new Mindful Movement @ 10:15 am 

Classes remain in current locations (Meditation in the Conference Room, Mindful Movement in the SMB Studio

To summarize, Mondays start a little later. Fridays start earlier and match up with Monday times, plus we’re adding a second Mindful Movement session. This new schedule will go live on Monday, May 11th.

Last Wednesday, we got caught in the Wisconsin weather in the midst of a flash flood. There wasn’t a chance to avoid anything. Dark night, dark street, heavy rain. Before we knew it we were in deep. And it was getting deeper, forcing us to abandon the truck and wade to safety. The truck is a total loss of course but the people narrowly avoided disaster.

It was supposed to be a light week. A week off between 12 week sessions of the balance class I teach and my wife out of town at a conference. Well, so much for that.

Brighter days ahead … the high school varisity soccer season is underway and coming off the bench my youngest daughter, a freshman, has already scored twice. So that’s a bright spot.

Our renovation has picked up steam. My next to non-existent photography skills can’t do it justice but our vendor is keeping the world up to date so I’ll share a couple videos from her.

We’ve been married coming up on 30 years .. brought 8 kids into the world and for the first 20+ years of this adventure, we were pretty much head down trying to keep up with life. Around about the time COVID showed up, that shell was showing signs of cracking a bit. In part, we were becoming a least a little bit financially stable. In part, we were starting to thin the herd as kids flew the nest.

The last, say, 36 months have been a joyride to make up for lost time. Some trips with kids, some just us as a couple, but a marked departure from the shell. We’ve visited mountains and oceans, but domestic and those a far away places. I think, other than the scenery of course, it that everywhere you go is home to someone else and it looks quite grand. And that makes me wonder - since we reside in something of a tourist trap town - are we overlooking things in our own proverbial back yard.

Of course we are and it is too easy to discount that as you dine in an open air beach adjacent eatery … or any other plethora of activities you do while you are traveling that you don’t bother to do “at home”.

That said … I think what I love most about our travels is it makes me feel more connected to home. It seems to be native to the human condition that we’re always looking for that greener grass. What I find over and over again though is the people I meet are far more like me and far less as different as we imagine them.

There’s a lesson there.

In today’s world, Clarity, Calm and Breathing have become precious goods. We are driven in our daily lives by the system, responsibilities and consumerism to the point where we have almost completely lost ourselves.

She’s giving a retreat later this year near Barcelona, Spain. I wish I could go but this year is already scheduled beyond capacity. Click Here .....

If nothing else … if your interested in this Tai Chi, Qigong, Mindfulness, etc… Art With Chi is a great resource to check out.

Today, across my YouTube feed, came a podcast that is just too powerful to keep to myself .. so, to my few followers .. please spread the word.

A conversation about grief …. Anderson Cooper interviews Sara Bareilles… while I will admit to a rather short attention span .. I watched this one start to finish and I can’t recommend it enough … see it HERE

Resilience Meditation

Meditation on Hope

We’ve all been there I suppose. Someone you followed/respected/revered/whatever turns out to have a history with which you cannot reconcile your values. It’s been a while but here I sit again. I don’t need to name the name, but rather want to contemplate what to do about it.

I live in the wellness space, these days mostly focused on aging. Easy pick now that I’m firmly into my 60s and it is rather infrequent to have folks much younger than me in my classes. (though .. bravo to those 40 and 50 somethings that are smart enough to know that we need to be paying attention to some things much earlier than we’d thought). Research is plentiful but solid answers and advise somewhat more elusive.

In this space, the knowledge base is evolving and there are a few folks who I’ll admit, I hung on every word of theirs. You’d think by now I’d be smarter. I certainly thought that….

But alas, one of my idols appears to have some questionable skeletons. I’m done. Cancelled everything. Put a very eloquent (and one I didn’t finish) book on the shelf. Not that the information within isn’t quite likely spectacular, but there are spaces where character wins over content. I’ll bite the bullet and seek a new idol.

Lesson learned … maybe. These are strange days.