I've been a big fan of Maitri (loving kindness) Practice, since my dear teacher Lisa Steele introduced me to it years ago. It's been a consistent part of my daily practice, at least it was until about two weeks after my son was born and my world turned completely upside down. I let it go. And then the hours of lost sleep started to add up. And my support systems fell apart. And we had the rainiest winter in Seattle in a century. And I found out I have to move my family, again. The world started looking pretty ugly.

Then my best friend brought Pema Chodren back into my life. While I holed up with a new baby, she discovered secular buddhism and maitri and all the practices I love. She did the kindest thing for me that I've experienced since she left a daffodil on my doorstep on a dark day 7 years ago. She reminded me about mindfulness, gently, over and over throughout the long winter. She sent me passages from Pema's When Things Fall Apart. She reminded me to breathe. I'm deeply grateful.

It's a transformative experience to sjmply pause instead of immediately filling up the space. By waiting, we begin to connect with fundamental restlessness as well as fundamental spaciousness. -Pema Chodren

Much as I like the idea of subtle energy, I tend to resist it when presented with the opportunity to deepen my practice in this way. For some reason, that didn't happen over the weekend while studying meditation, pranayama, bandhas and vayus with two teachers I greatly admire - Jenny Hayo and Chiara Guerrieri. I am deeply grateful to both of them for the space they held and the teachings they offered. And I also know that I showed up ready to receive. Perhaps 6 months of backing way off of my physical practice to focus on subtle alignment and sensations in the body had prepared me. I felt my breath move in new ways and was refreshed in my desire for a consistent mindfulness practice. With that sense of openness, I returned to a guided meditation that I find quite powerful, though it had sat on my shelf for a good long while. Maitri, or Meta, is a simple and beautiful way to increase the capacity of the heart for compassion towards self and others. I shared my own interpretation of Maitri in my very first post on this blog. It's certainly appropriate for any time of year, but as I discovered this week, spring provides an abundance of imagery to support the practice.

If you are unfamiliar with this meditation, it's a four-part offering to self, a loved-one, a neutral being, and finally to someone with whom you are experiencing dis-harmony. I usually use my own words, but this week felt drawn to my teacher's rendition:

May I be happy, may I be healthy, may I be safe, may I live with ease.

May you be happy, may you be healthy, may you be safe, may you live with ease.

May we be happy, may we be healthy, may we be safe, may we live with ease.

Maitri is associated with the anahata chakra, or energy point in the heart space. Each chakra has a color and anahata is green. I often try to imagine my awareness dropping down into my chest and am always curious to see if somehow the color green will show up. It doesn't and I'm left wondering what I'm missing.

I left my Maitri practice on Tuesday and had the rare opportunity to move at human speed for the rest of my day. By this I mean that I walked to wherever I needed to go. As I made my way from one neighborhood to another, I was suddenly flooded by green. Everywhere I looked - neon, earthy, dark, mint - green.

It turns out that when I open my awareness, slow down and use my senses as I move through my day, I find that what I've been looking for is already all around. Every where I go this week, I see green. The world around me is alive with love and compassion. It's spring and love is in bloom. Hello heart chakra, nice to meet you.