A Joyful Practice

A 5-Minute Note with [Over] A Week of Excerpts & A Video (for anyone who is interested) December 4, 2025

May you be safe and protected / May you be peaceful and happy, during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence (November 25^th – December 10^th) and on all the other days of your life.

“As for him who neither possesses nor can acquire them, let him take to heart the words of Hesiod; ‘He is the best of all who thinks for himself in all things. He, too, is good who takes advice from a wiser. But he who neither thinks for himself, nor lays to heart another’s wisdom, this is a useless man.’”

— quoted from “Book I, Chapter II” of The Ethics of Aristotle: Volume The First by Aristotle (London: Arthur L. Humphreys 1902, Revised from the translation by D. P. Chase, published at Oxford in 1847)

Everyone needs a moment (or two) of discernment; a moment (or two) to pause, reflect, and reevaluate. Part of me wishes I could say that that is all I did over this last week. However, I am very grateful to note that my week away from teaching include a lot of craic: good food, music, laughter, and stories (sometimes in the form of movies) with some of my chosen family, friends, and a couple of wonderful doggies.

There were also some unexpected complications and those, it turns out, led to quite a bit of insight. Some of which I will share with you at a later date. In the meantime, here are excerpts (and a video) from some of the blog posts related to the last week of classes.

“Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.”

— Tehillim – Psalms (100:4), KJV

Don’t Be Greedy; Be Grateful, redux (the Tuesday post w/an extra Wednesday link & some Thursday notes)

“Will Rogers, billed as the Oklahoma Cowboy, in a rope act is a feature at the Orpheum this week. He does wonders in rope spinning but you get so much interested in his ‘patter’ that you forget to watch the tricks, as he calls them. He is a monolinguist disguised in chaps, and one of the best ever….

PD. Printed in Kansas City Post and Journal, ca. 26 October 1914. Scrapbook 1914, CPpR”

— quoted from The Papers of Will Rogers: From Vaudeville to Broadway: Volume Three, September 1908 –  August 1915  by Will Rogers, edited by Arthur Frank Wertheim and Barbara Bair

Cowboy, I Moustache You To Go… Over Here (the “missing” Sunday post)

“The reader who finds these three episodes of no interest need read this book no further, for in a sense the central theme of my life is about nothing else. For those who are still disposed to proceed I will only underline the quality common to the three experiences; it is that of an unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction. I call it Joy, which is here a technical term and must be sharply distinguished both from Happiness and Pleasure. Joy (in my sense) has indeed one characteristic, and one only, in common with them; the fact that anyone who has experienced it will want it again. Apart from that, and considered only in its quality, it might almost equally well be called a particular kind of unhappiness or grief. But then it is a kind we want. I doubt whether anyone who has tasted it would ever, if both were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasures in the world. But then Joy is never in our power and pleasure often is.”

— quoted from Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life by C. S. Lewis

FTWMI: “This is why you were brought [here]”

“‘Mine was the first cry for justice, and a loud one. I made it so that our own adult leaders couldn’t just be nice anymore. Back then, as a teenager, I kept thinking, Why don’t the adults around here just say something?’”

— quoted from Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice  by Phillip Hoose

First Friday Night Special #38: An Invitation to “(True) Stories Before You Sleep” & An Excerpt

“Love was action. It came to you. It was not a choice.”

— quoted from Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

FTWMI: A Song or 2 For You *REVISED*

Yoga Sūtra 3.35: hṛdaye cittasaṃvit

— “By making samyama on the heart, one gains knowledge of the content of the mind.”

Gazing into the Heart, redux…again (a “missing” and “long-lost” post)

“Quiet friend who has come so far,

feel how your breathing makes more space around you.”

— quoted from Sonnets to Orpheus, II.29 by Rainer Maria Rilke (translated by Joanna Macy) 

Breathe, Question, Change (a Monday Moving Meditation reflection)

There are audio recordings for several of the December 4^th practices, but only one video (so far).

We shall breathe and break things down (i.e., metabolize things) during the First Friday Night Special on December 5^th, 7:15 PM – 8:20 PM, CST)

&

I will offer in-person classes at the beginning of January 2026. (*DETAILS COMING SOON!*)

If you are thinking about suicide, worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, you can dial 988 (in the US) or call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call this TALK line if you are struggling with addiction or involved in an abusive relationship. The Lifeline network is free, confidential, and available to all 24/7. YOU CAN TALK ABOUT ANYTHING.

White Flag is an app, which I have not yet researched, but which may be helpful if you need peer-to-peer (non-professional) support.

If you are a young person in crisis, feeling suicidal, or in need of a safe and judgement-free place to talk, you can also click here to contact the TrevorLifeline (which is staffed 24/7 with trained counselors).

In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.)

### AUM / OM ###