February 1 – A fresh start

Dear Friends,

It’s been a pleasure to be a visitor to your inbox this past month. This is a special project for me, now in my second year. I appreciate having the opportunity to dig deep into teachings and readings, reflecting on what it means to me, and hearing from so many what it means to you. So thank you for your words of encouragement and for sharing your practice with me.

I also want to say special thanks to Jeanne Corrigal, who has supported me in this adventure, by offering me guidance and inspiration. And I offer a deep bow of gratitude to the many teachers who have made their materials available. Jeanne and many of the teachers I’ve referenced freely offer their teachings. If you’re so inclined, I invite you to support them in return – make a donation, take their courses, buy their books.

But January is over! And so too ends this series of daily emails.

But don’t despair! If you’ve enjoyed getting a little bit of inspiration in your inbox each day, I’d like to encourage you to join Sharon Salzberg’s Real Happiness Meditation Challenge for the month of February. You can sign up here:
https://www.sharonsalzberg.com/meditation-challenge-2017-registration

Each day in February, Sharon will send an email with a link to a bit of advice and a brief guided meditation. The four weeks follow allong with the themes from Sharon’s book Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation: A 28-day Program.

There are thousands of people all around the world who are participating, including several who are writing blogs about their experience. We have a group from Saskatoon blogging with the Saskatoon Insight Meditation Community, so you can follow along with our posts too.

As I mentioned in the previous emails, I spent the last few days at a five-day residential retreat with Adrianne Ross. It was a rich and deep experience for me, and I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to practice with Adrianne and a group of like-minded people.

One of the messages that I’m taking away from the retreat is this:
Each moment is a fresh start.

So it doesn’t matter what I did or didn’t do yesterday or last month. What matters is this moment.

So I want to encourage you to keep practicing. Moment by moment. It’s a fresh start.

With best wishes and great appreciation,
Andrea