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

We began with centering breathing. We got in a comfortable position. We relaxed our shoulders and our jaws and our foreheads. We did square breathing: slowly breathe in for a count of 4, hold that breath for a count of 4, slowly breathe out for a count of 4, and hold for a count of 4.

We discussed meditation and mindfulness. One definition of mindfulness is that mindfulness is when we bring to our awareness that which does not require our awareness. For example, our bodies will breathe without our attention to breathing.  So when we attune ourselves to our breathing, we are being mindful. Similarly, our senses do not require our attention. We will hear with no effort so when we attune ourselves to what we are hearing, when we focus on listening, we are being mindful.

Laura Mayo read “What Can I Say” by Mary Oliver (see below). Then she asked us to consider how leaves sing and what they might be telling us.  She read it again.

For our meditative walk, she encouraged folks to listen to the singing of the leaves.

When we returned from our walk and reflected on the experience many folks offered the experience of listening to the leaves and wind. One person noted that that leaves sing a song of letting go and how powerful the idea of gentle release might be in our lives. Another noted that focusing on the leaves since the May 16 Derecho and Hurricane Beryl hit, the leaves are now seeming to focus upward. Another person noted that the leaves seem to convey a song of peace and tranquility. The city noises outside of the nature preserve can be heard.  All realized that we aren’t in those noises, we are in the midst of the song of the leaves.