9.22.25
Meditation Mondays
Thought
You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf. Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally. Each moment missed is a moment unlived. The little things? The little moments? They aren’t little.
– John Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are
Quote
Alan Watts on presence:
“The art of living is neither careless drifting nor fearful clinging. It consists of being sensitive to each moment.”
Intention of the Day
My intention is to approach the day with a curious mind and a willing heart.
What’s your intention today?
Happy Monday,
Val
9.15.25
Meditation Mondays
Thought
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.
– Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Quote
Pema Chodron on being:
“You are the sky. Everything else—it’s just the weather.”
Intention of the Day
My intention is to stay open to new experiences and ideas.
What’s your intention today?
Happy Monday,
Val
9.8.25
Meditation Mondays
Thought
When you arise in the morning, think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love. Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them. The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts. You have power over your mind—not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength. Waste no more time arguing about what a good person should be. Be one.
– Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Quote
David Steindl-Rast on simplicity:
“Joy is the happiness that doesn’t depend on what happens.”
Intention of the Day
My intention is to focus on progress, not perfection.
What’s your intention today?
Happy Monday,
Val
9.1.25
Meditation Mondays
Thought
“If while washing dishes, we think only of the cup of tea that awaits us, thus hurrying to get the dishes out of the way as if they were a nuisance, then we are not ‘washing the dishes to wash the dishes.’ … If we can’t wash the dishes, the chances are we won’t be able to drink our tea either. … While drinking the cup of tea, we will only be thinking of other things, barely aware of the cup in our hands. Thus we are sucked away into the future—and we are incapable of actually living one minute of life.”
—Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness
Quote
African proverb on surrender:
“The wind does not break a tree that bends.”
Intention of the Day
My intention is to meet challenges with grace and courage.
What’s your intention today?
Happy Monday,
Val
8.25.25
Meditation Mondays
Thought
Much of what remains undeveloped in us, psychologically speaking, is excluded because it is too good to bear. This may seem silly, but if you look honestly at your life, you will find it to be true.
We often refuse to accept our most noble traits and instead find a shadow substitute for them. For example, instead of living with spirit, we settle for spirit in a bottle. In place of our god-given right to the ecstatic, we settle for temporary highs from consuming something or possessing someone. At first it is puzzling why we would look for our potentially best qualities in something or someone else. From the point of view of the ego, the appearance of a sublime trait or quality might upset our whole personality structure.
In going down into the underworld a person of integrity can draw the skeletons out of the closet fairly easily, but he will likely fight to the end of his neurotic strength to hide the divinity of his own being.
- Robert Johnson and Jerry Ruhl, Living Your Unlived Life
Quote
Tara Brach on flow:
“When you stop resisting what is, you free yourself to be fully alive.”
Intention of the Day
My intention is to give myself the same compassion I offer to others.
What’s your intention today?
Happy Monday,
Val
8.18.25
Meditation Mondays
Thought
We are always living in expectation of better things, while at the same time we often repent and long to have the past back again. We look upon the present as something to be put up with while it lasts, and serving only as the way towards our goal. Hence most people, if they glance back when they come to the end of life, will find that all along they have been living ad interim: they will be surprised to find that the very thing they disregarded and let slip by unenjoyed was just their life-that is to say, it was the very thing in the expectation of which they lived Of how many a man may it not be said that hope made a fool of him until he danced into the arms of death!
– Schopenhauer, Essays of Schopenhauer
Quote
Rumi on acceptance:
“Life is a balance of holding on and letting go.”
Intention of the Day
My intention is to speak with kindness and act with love in all situations.
What’s your intention today?
Happy Monday,
Val
8.11.25
Meditation Mondays
Thought
The arts allow us to contemplate our experiences and therefore invite soul into the picture. They sustain the emotions the soul feeds on and retain the complexity of meaning that is proper to its realm. The mind appreciates the reduction of meaning to logic and classification, but the soul finds more to chew on in diversity, density, and subtlety. ... If we see ourselves as a puzzle to be solved, then we will be satisfied with rational explanations, but if we see ourselves as made up of unfathomable mysteries, then we will need images that are not excessively reductive. A good artistic presentation may well lead us deeper into confusion and help us feel the chaos of life more vividly than ever. The truth in art is diffuse and largely ineffable, but at the same time it offers a degree of honesty and certainty not found elsewhere.
- Thomas Moore, The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life
Quote
Seneca on interconnectedness:
“We are waves of the same sea, leaves of the same tree, flowers of the same garden.”
Intention of the Day
My intention is to celebrate the little victories and simple pleasures.
What’s your intention today?
Happy Monday,
Val
8.4.25
Meditation Mondays
Thought
Joseph Campbell's classic, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, documents the ubiquity of what he considered the mono-myth of the hero. This central myth seems to have three stages: departure, initiation and return. The departure stage arises when the person is expelled from the community or has outgrown the old dispensation. Then he or she is obliged to wander in strange lands. Descents, ascents and wounding initiate the neophyte into the mysteries of nature and of relationship. The return is seldom back to the old land and never back to the old psychology. Such a return would obviate the journey and annihilate consciousness. Rather the return involves circling back at a higher level. Thus the in-forming image of the quest motif is not a linear movement once and for all time, but rather an evolutionary movement akin to a spiral.
– James Hollis, Tracking the Gods: The Place of Myth in Modern Life
Quote
Thich Nhat Hanh on presence:
“This moment is not just a part of your life—it is your life.”
Intention of the Day
My intention is to see today as a gift, no matter what it brings..
What’s your intention today?
Happy Monday,
Val