Heavy Metta
Last night was the Sharon Salzberg metta talk at Jaya. I ran out of work and made it just in time! As I was walking over I thought, for the first time, that I might run into people I know there. It's at a yoga studio that I took my beginner classes at (and then ceased going!) so I don't know many people from the studio but I figured I might run into some Brooklyn folks who I've sat mediation with before. Instead I saw my down-the-street neighbors (couple) and my shift-worker friend from the food co-op. She went through the 4 factors of metta: loving kindness (worldview), compassion ("compassion shouldn't fatigue you"), sympathetic joy ("upping your odds") and equanimity (habit).
I don't know why I was surprised but we also sat twice -- once for a basic breathing meditation and once for a loving-kindness (LK) meditation. I think I was a little surprised by how basic everything was (you know - basic but simultaneously really challenging) and how similar the LK meditation was to the one we did at DP. ("May I be happy, may I be healthy, may I live with ease") I wasn't expecting to sit so I was in a skirt (easy to sit meditation in, harder not to flash your sangha pals!) and hadn't really situated myself on a blanket correctly so I kept having to adjust my shoulders or lower back positioning slightly (and mindfully!) when it was taxing to either. I had a super hard time with the first breathing meditation since I've been so busy/high strung lately and I just couldn't get a solid relaxed breath going. (Plus, I never sit meditation anymore.)
The event was a really nice reminder about LK though - and she did put some good perspective on "the moment". Just how many layers there are to everything and how that exemplifies the amount of opportunities for LK and mindfulness. i.e. the people in the room -- how many different relationships and lives you have, how many different interactions. i.e. your food -- what you ate was planted by someone, harvested by someone, animals lived in that landscape, the transport, the sale, the prepartion, your choice to consume, etc.
Then I left and went to check on some humane traps my co-trappers set up and had to leave. I ended up getting 1 cat (thankfully not eartipped - a lot of them have already been fixed in that area!) and called a car to bring it to the holding space house so now we have all of 4 (out of the 15 slots I have) and it's raining now so we probably won't be able to trap tonight. Lame.
After I was really promising myself I'd cut back on work, I got an email this morning about a fera cat problem in a historical area of Brooklyn with a request that I come and speak at their monthly meeting about TNR. But I tried to defer that until May at least.
I don't know why I was surprised but we also sat twice -- once for a basic breathing meditation and once for a loving-kindness (LK) meditation. I think I was a little surprised by how basic everything was (you know - basic but simultaneously really challenging) and how similar the LK meditation was to the one we did at DP. ("May I be happy, may I be healthy, may I live with ease") I wasn't expecting to sit so I was in a skirt (easy to sit meditation in, harder not to flash your sangha pals!) and hadn't really situated myself on a blanket correctly so I kept having to adjust my shoulders or lower back positioning slightly (and mindfully!) when it was taxing to either. I had a super hard time with the first breathing meditation since I've been so busy/high strung lately and I just couldn't get a solid relaxed breath going. (Plus, I never sit meditation anymore.)
The event was a really nice reminder about LK though - and she did put some good perspective on "the moment". Just how many layers there are to everything and how that exemplifies the amount of opportunities for LK and mindfulness. i.e. the people in the room -- how many different relationships and lives you have, how many different interactions. i.e. your food -- what you ate was planted by someone, harvested by someone, animals lived in that landscape, the transport, the sale, the prepartion, your choice to consume, etc.
Then I left and went to check on some humane traps my co-trappers set up and had to leave. I ended up getting 1 cat (thankfully not eartipped - a lot of them have already been fixed in that area!) and called a car to bring it to the holding space house so now we have all of 4 (out of the 15 slots I have) and it's raining now so we probably won't be able to trap tonight. Lame.
After I was really promising myself I'd cut back on work, I got an email this morning about a fera cat problem in a historical area of Brooklyn with a request that I come and speak at their monthly meeting about TNR. But I tried to defer that until May at least.