Deep Listening

Gray tile, black Micron PN, graphite, white chalk pencil, white gellyroll. Tangles are Ratoon, Flux, A-Frame, Tipple. This is based on a class ZenLinea posted on the SkillShare website. My further experiment with it is below.

A friend stopped by my house today, exhausted and distraught, sharing a very sad but very familiar story of serious family trouble.  I think I may have been the first person outside the family she told.  There was nothing I could do but listen.  I can only hope that being present with her, and listening, was enough to help.

She was here for hours.  After she left I had to help myself, so I did this "variation," of the tile above, experimenting with what I'd learned in Zen Linea's class to produce this on a Bijou tile (2"x2"):

Bijou (2"x2") Renaissance (tan) tile, Brown Micron 01, brown colored pencils, graphite, white chalk pencil, white gellyroll. Tangles are a variation of Ratoon, a variation of A-Frame, and Flux.

Listening with loving-kindness was the only thing I could do.  

I am frequently reminded, as I hear other people speak of what they are going through, of how fortunate I really am.  I am grateful for my life, with all its warts and minor upsets and imperfections.  And with all its privilege and grace.

Compared to what some of those who matter to me are going through,  I often feel like the luckiest person on earth.

May she and her family heal.  May all those who suffer heal.  May all of us know peace.