This morning, I gave a talk, “Stories of Hope,” at the Green Bay Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, which is a warm, engaged, and thoughtful community. I shared stories of hope from preschool, prison, and the wilderness.
The year after my mom died, I inhabited a raw, tender, vivid state of grief. I looked around at people’s interactions—in coffee shops, classes, activities, and workplaces. And I noticed two things:
I volunteer in prison in two capacities: leading a secular mindfulness meditation group and holding one-on-one visits with prisoners. The sharing in group is powerful: courage, wisdom, and vulnerability. Yet the sharing in pastoral visits goes deeper.
A wandering mind is an uneasy mind. When our attention is split between many things or when we can't focus on the one thing right in front of us, we feel anxious and uncomfortable. This result is shown through direct experience as well as through scientific studies.