Learning to See – With the Heart

A quote came up in my planner today that resonated with Bear Heart. I found it originally in The Little Prince: It is only in the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince What does this sentiment mean to you? It occurs to…

Trees, Bees, and Learning through Experience

Imagine this: your teacher brings you to the middle of a forest and tells you to hug a tree. He says, “Stay here until I come back,” giving you no information about how long he’ll be gone or what you’re supposed to do, what you’re supposed to learn. So you sit, arms wrapped around bark,…

Weekend Practice

This week, Rumi's words inspired me to explore without planning what I might find. Gloria Fuertes and Rumi pointed toward different points of awareness than just our conscious mind: the body's "endless eye" and the "other eye" that we tune into when we "close both eyes." Fuertes reminds us that seeing with the body's eye…

What is Meditation For? (Day 2)

I've been sitting with this question, trying to open to (per Rumi) what will happen instead of planning or trying to direct what I will find in meditation. I ran across this quote, an epigraph to Jesmyn Ward's Salvage the Bones, and I felt it articulated something I had been encountering -- the "eye" of…

What is Meditation For? (Day 1)

This morning, I lost my keys. I looked everywhere, and as the minutes passed into an hour, the thoughts mounted. I need to take the dog out. Now my peaceful morning is already ruined. Is there an extra set somewhere? What if something happens and I'm locked inside the gate? I can't even write all…