Today we come to the close of this 28-day challenge. I find it a tremendous support to feel the efforts of a community as we walk a path together. It is a great blessing to be continually reminded just to take a breath, to come back to the moment, to try kindness as a response. It is an act of wise discernment to step forward to dwell in such an environment, to actually experiment with our time, our awareness, our hearts.
Now that the structured support won’t be so readily apparent, we all need to assess what helps support us and see how we can create it and renew it.
A daily dedicated practice is usually at the core of this. Whether you sit, or walk, or lie down, some dedicated period where you are not responsible for anything other than deepening awareness and compassion is the biggest reinforcement of what we care about. That’s a period where we are taking abstract values, like presence or compassion, and directly making them real.
Take a look and see if you can sense what would help you do this — practicing in the morning or the evening? Alone or with others? At the same time each day? At the same place each day? It’s not fixed, of course, but as you sense what might be helpful for now, see if you can put it into practice. And hold in your heart all those who are, in one way or another, practicing alongside you.
