In this post, you will find an impressively non-exhaustive, small, fluid compilation of links to guided loving kindness meditation practices generously recorded and offered by various individuals for personal use. Some of the meditations are focused primarily on the practice of offering loving kindness to oneself, while others include the practice of offering loving kindness to oneself and others.
I had the pleasure and good fortune to experience Jann Arden and accompanying musicians in concert this week. It was wonderful. For this post, I offer four lines of lyrics from her song, Good Mother—lyrics that stayed with me after the show (among others). Reflecting, I thought of life; of the journeying humans do; of various people I have met; and of you, too, readers.
I will also post below a video Jann has shared of a live-streamed performance of this song, which you can find on her youtube channel.
If you have the opportunity to see her on tour, I whole-heartedly recommend doing so.
Today during the winter solstice, I had the pleasure of witnessing a symphony of trumpeter swans and geese creating music together. Their music echoed into the stillness of the surrounding landscape while the sun lowered and set beyond the horizon. It was magical.
Also today, a poem by John Welwood came to mind. Some lines from the poem include
Life includes (or can include) really hard things and awful things, in various places and at various times. Life also includes (or can include) things that are beautiful, often profoundly. One of the things I like about the photographs below is how they include a mix of both shadows, stormy tones, and also vibrancy and light—each apparently juxtaposed with the other.
Whatever you are experiencing in this particular moment, may you feel with you the good company of a kindness or loving energy, and/or the strengthening energy of an expansive sky.
In the free Insight Timer app (available for ios and adroid), you can find short, 6-minute and 10-minute guided loving kindness meditations offered and led by Sharon Salzberg.
