Loving Kindness
We had our amazing 2014 CTAMFT Annual Conference this past Thursday and Friday and it was chock full of great people, ideas and tools. Kelly McGonigal was mesmerizing, Lou Cozolino was funny and humble while being masterful in presenting complicated information.

Cardinal courtship feeding
I was particularly drawn to the Metta Meditation presented by Dr. Ingeborg Haug. Her presence is so calming and soothing and then added to that this peaceful, healing loving meditation, it has lingered with me.
I was thinking about it on Sunday morning, looking out over the pond where I live, and I was watching first a heron land, look around, and then take off, followed by a cardinal couple hopping about. As I was watching the cardinals, I was also reflecting on the horrible tragedy in the Jonathan Law High School in Milford to which many of my colleagues were called away as assistants in grief counseling.
As I am watching the cardinals, I see the male discover a piece of bread we had thrown out. He nips off a piece and (seemingly) excitedly he hops over to the female and beak-to-beak gives her the bread. He then hops back to the bread, nibbles some more, and again gives it to the female. He does this 4 times before they fly away to another space. I was then thinking about the stabbing, how it is the exact opposite of the roles that Mother Nature intends for us to take. The male cardinal gave his treasure to the female as a courtship ritual, eventually presumably because she needs the extra nutrition to lay eggs or nest, etc. The female cardinal didn’t snub this male, but I imagine she had snubbed many other suitors before selecting this male as her mate for the season. How did humans get this dance so wrong?
So I then found myself reflecting on Ingeborg’s gift of the Metta Meditation to all of us. I am now giving it to you. (this isn’t Ingeborg, but a very parallel take on the Metta Meditation) The five phrases given are: “May I be happy. May I be at ease. May I be safe. May I be healthy. May I be strong.”
Metta means “loving kindness”. Please let’s all practice loving kindness more, and selfish possessiveness less.
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