First name / friend, 

 

 

Spring is an invitation to pay attention to what is sprouting within one’s nature. It is also a call to not forget what is most important. Nature as a teacher has shown me that each Spring is an opportunity to be with the aliveness of each moment in such a way that reveals the most essential wisdom – life is so precious.

 

With each inhale I take a breath… I am aware of how precious life truly is. With each exhale, I release the very essentials of my continuation of life itself and I share this experience with every tree on our beloved Earth. I feel the breeze of winds passing and the whisper of the ancestors to not turn away each moment. The intimacy of a reciprocated life begins with the recognition that our lives have never been our own alone.

 

Every breath is shared.

Every grief has been carried by others before us.

Every joy ripens through relationship.

Even the body is made of the same elements that formed our universe. 

 

The invitation that Spring provides is to feel how close we actually are:

To one another.

To the land.

To the ancestors.

To great mystery.

 

The intimacy is in the softening of separation.

Opening ourselves up to what is calling for our attention.

To let the world touch us.

To let sorrow matter.

To let beauty change us.

To let love be boundless and vast.

To sustain what is precious.

To deepen matters of the heart.

To widen one’s possibilities beyond boundaries and borders.

 

I leave you with these words from an important stranger whose journey I recently discovered — he is one year into honoring the life of his beloved partner Ximena, whom he lost too soon.

 

“Do not wait until your loved ones are sick to gather them close. Do not wait until a funeral to tell people what they have meant. Do not wait for the ‘right moment’ to make the call, send the message, book the trip, mend the rupture, say I love you, say I forgive you, say thank you. Have the last conversation while there is still time to have it. Or — better — have the conversation now, so it never has to be the last.” — Tony Cho 

 

With gratitude, 

 

Healing justice doesn't only happen within our programs — it ripples outward into the wider world. Here we share where our team has been showing up, learning, contributing, and weaving connections across the broader ecosystem of healing, contemplative practice, and social change.

 

Danny T. Duong, Director of Organizational Stewardship, recently had the privilege of attending the Garrison Institute's Conscious Change Forum in New York — a four-day gathering of thinkers, activists, spiritual leaders, and contemplative practitioners exploring the intersection of inner work and social change. Alongside over 90 participants, Danny engaged in rich conversation around love as a political and movement strategy, spiritual grounding in secular movement spaces, and the wisdom of sitting with complexity rather than rushing toward resolution. The forum deepened Braided Wisdom's understanding that the kind of healing and community-building we're cultivating is not separate from the broader work of conscious social change… it is at the very heart of it. Check out the full event recap here. 

 

The Participant's Corner this Spring features Ina Adele Ray (aka Adele) who is a media-maker of mixed-race Vietnamese and Scots-Irish American descent. She has worked in film and video production in both the commercial and non-profit worlds (from broadcast tv to social media) as a producer, director, and editor for over 20 years to support her passion for new technology, experimental media, and personal storytelling. Adele dedicated 3 years to building out an in-house production studio for the San Francisco-based company, MyHealthTeam, as their Executive Managing Producer until Feb 2024. She has since founded a budding production and post-production boutique, Mind Ray Media, LLC.. She is currently in preproduction on a short indie film, "What Does It Cost To Be Civil", as well as producing, editing, and or advising on several Bay Area projects with independent filmmakers and producers in Northern California. Listen to this conversation to learn more about Adele's journey of self-reclamation through her unfolding creation — From Descendant to Ancestor — an experimental short film.

 

Whatever this Spring season is asking of you, we hope you are being gentle with yourself. When you have a quiet moment, we warmly offer this guided meditation practice as a gift for your body, your breath, and your becoming. Beginning Again: Renewal in Every Breath with teacher Sarwang Parikh. (48 minutes)

 

Sarwang Parikh, LMFT (he/they) is a psychotherapist and meditation teacher based on unceded Ohlone land in Richmond, CA. He was born into a devotional Indian lineage from an immigrant, working-class family. They have been practicing and studying the Dharma path for over 20 years, primarily through the doors of Vedic yoga and the Theravada Buddhist lineage. You can find out more about Sarwang at www.heartroottherapy.com.

 

For those who missed the powerful March EcoDharma Exploration discussion with Guest Speaker, Dr. Patricia June Vickers, the recording of the session is now available here. The Tsm’syen peoples of the Northwest Coast of British Columbia live by the Ayaawx (ancestral law), a living system of teachings expressed through social process, sacred stories, protocol, and relationship between human, land, to Supernatural and most powerfully experienced in Potlatch. This session offered an overview of Ayaawx as guidance for daily living, including cleansing practices and teachings on soul loss and soul retrieval. 

 

EcoDharma Explorations is a collaborative partnership program between Braided Wisdom, One Earth Sangha and Spirit Rock, as part of the new EcoDharma & Transformational Culture Program. 

 

We warmly invite you to join our Founder & Executive Director, Carol Cano, in upcoming offerings in collaboration with our partner communities. These teachings are part of the wider ecosystem of practice and relationship that Braided Wisdom is honored to be a part of. Click below for more details!

 

June 4th - Hosted by California Institute of Integral Studies

On Black Buddhism and Radical Thought with Rima Vesely-Flad & Rhonda Magee 

 

June 18th - Hosted by California Institute of Integral Studies

On Everyday Restorative Justice with Tatiana Chaterji & Fania Davis 

 

Xi'im Ek Balam is recultivating Indigenous cosmovisions to nurture cross-cultural and cross-tribal harmonious futures through combining traditional cultural practices with contemporary art, somatics, quantum physics, mindfulness, and matriarchal/decolonial leadership development.