It’s so strange to reconcile all the changes we go through in our lives. How easy it is to forget about pain, until suddenly we (or someone we love) are engulfed in hardship.

My meditation practice is filled with wishes of “May You Be Happy.” And that is what I want for everyone, happiness in all it’s forms. But, speaking from personal experience, my life became more clear and more powerful through my pain.  I want to give voice to the potential that lies within those experiences.

We don’t have the ability to control our circumstances in any given moment. But we always have choices in how we respond.

We get to choose who we are and who we become.

Maybe we have to make that choice more than once. Maybe we have to keep re-inventing ourselves, especially when life turns upside down.

What do we do when we don’t know who we are? Or when we can’t be who and what we want to be? How do we find security in the middle of loss or change or lack of control?

Meditation, specifically heart meditation on love and compassion, became my lifeline through my darkest days. It helped me stay in contact with daily reality. At the same time, it showed me something much bigger. Pure love, the ground of our being.

When you hear the word meditation, you may have some kind of image in your head. But I’m talking about more than sitting on a cushion. Meditation is continual process of greeting mind and heart. It may mean sitting. Just as often it includes engaging awareness “on the spot” throughout the day.

I understand suffering. Right now your wish may be as direct as freedom from fear, grief, or anger. You may need a break, the blessing of one single moment of ease.  You may feel the most you can hope for is less stress and a little peace of mind.

Meditation will help you find a quality of spaciousness you didn’t know you possessed. Space to rest and heal, clarity to face what is real for you, compassion for yourself and for others.

Meditation provides a vehicle, a chariot, for transformation. You can hope for more than stress-relief. Make room to shift beyond self-grasping to discovering comfort in the world. Make room to become who you are inside, regardless of outer circumstances. Believe, for just a moment, you can develop a heartfelt connection with all beings

Loving-kindness meditation is a good place to start. Begin by developing genuine, unconditional love for yourself and expand it in every widening circles.

In time, something unexpected and almost magical will happen. As your capacity for compassion deepens, you’ll begin to experience a quality of love beyond anything you’ve ever known. You’ll catch a glimpse of what it must be like to have the heart and mind of a great leader or spiritual master.

Your clear mind, your unobstructed heart is not different from these great Teachers.

You, we (!) can become a source of blessings in these times.