This was lead by Laura Mayo, the Senior Minister of Covenant Church and is active in Houston interfaith work.

The lovely weather for our May Morning Mindfulness included bright sunshine and a cool temperature. Because of the high volume of mosquitoes ready to attack us, we made a chair circle in the shade of an oak tree island near the kiosk instead of inside the forest.

We started with some concepts for us to practice as we walked through the forest, the primary one being that there is no wrong way to practice Mindfulness. If our minds wander “off” into our worries or To Do List, bringing ourselves back to our breath to return us to Mindfulness is the correct thing to do.

Learning to breathe in and out deeply using a positive word for in and a negative word for out is illustrative of losing our worries to joy. For instance if you breathe in thinking a key word such as “Joy,” and breathe out a key word such as “Worry,” you will be working to rid yourself of worry and fill yourself with joy. And, to let yourself feel this transition even more, hold your hands out in an accepting manor when breathing in and thinking Joy, and turn your hands over into a non-accepting position when breathing out and thinking Worry.

Once we had practiced breathing, we added a 3-2-1 method to it - see three things, hear two things, touch one thing. A gentle reminder to never touch leaves of three because we should let them be was given and off we went for a 20 minute walk through the forest to practice breathing and employ the 3-2-1 method.

Afterwards, we met back at our chair circle to share what we had seen, heard, and touched in the forest as we wandered. Some of the things seen were a Black Swallowtail Butterfly as it fluttered by, a Robin sitting on a branch, and a winding Muscadine grape vine. Some of the things heard were the soft coo of the White-winged Doves, and the crunch of the path underfoot. Something that was touched was a Loblolly Pine trunk.

Now we will take our latest learned practices with us as we disperse for the summer.