Kingfisher: the colour-giver, fire-bringer, flame-flicker, river’s quiver. Ink-black bill, orange throat, and a quick blue back-gleaming feather-stream. Neat and still it sits on the snag of a stick, until with… Gold-flare, wing-fan, whipcrack the kingfisher – zingfisher, singfisher- Flashes down too fast to follow, quick and quicker carves its hollow In the water, slings its…
If you were in the UK last weekend – August Bank Holiday – you will likely have experienced the amazingly hot and beautiful sunny weather. The good weather certainly brings people out and they all aim for hotspots like the seaside, or areas of interest. Usually I avoid the long queues of traffic, the hoards…
Let your eyes fall easy upon me, And gaze without intention or preconceived idea of what I am. My shape is not me, as yours is not you. There is more to it than that. More to it than meets the eye, or the precept. Think more of what I may be, of what I…
I had a wonderful time at our conference earlier this month. It felt like a coming of age. We were our own keynotes, without needing to import big names in from the US. We acknowledged our roots with warm and insightful sessions with Rob Nairn. We acknowledged the success of our Masters students and their…
Mindfulness training is about being in the moment and enhancing our experience of being present – whatever that may be. This became so apparent to me today, when I was taken out of my usual routine and did something completely different. I’m writing this on a train to Manchester for our MAHQ meeting tomorrow. Nothing…
I have just completed delivering the 6 day Mindfulness Based Living Course teaching skills retreat and seen a new cohort of embodied mindfulness teachers committed to sharing the benefits of compassion based mindfulness with their communities. It was a wonderful week working with my friends and colleagues Choden, Barbara Reid and Alan Hughes – what…
Clouds are flowing in the river, waves are flying in the sky. Life is laughing in a pebble. Does a pebble ever die? Flowers grow out of garbage, such a miracle to see. What seems dead and what seems dying makes for butterflies to be. Life is laughing in a pebble, flowers bathe in the…
Reflecting on the Mindfulness Association Conference last week – feelings of warmth and happiness flood my body and a smile appears on my face. I’m sitting here looking through all the photos that I took over a few days – and again I see laughter and happiness reflected in the images before me. So I…
I have just enjoyed a wonderful week in Bridlington, with Rob Nairn and his sister Margaret. We stayed in Helen’s holiday chalets and spent some very happy evenings talking over past times. We reflected back over the start of the Mindfulness Association and marvelled about what it has become a decade later. It was a…