Walking on ancient stone floors uneven from centuries of footsteps, stepping over bronze plaques commemorating trials and beheadings for high treason and state visits of yore, under the soaring vaulted beams of the 13thcentury Westminster Hall, the ceiling like a huge upside-down ship, we marvel our way through majestic medieval buildings gently sinking into the marshland below the river Thames. This is Parliament, in London.
Our guide is Chris Ruane, a 10-year meditation practitioner and tall, welcoming MP (Member of Parliament). Chris was inspired by Tim Ryan’s Mindful Nation to found the UK All-Party Parliamentary Mindfulness Group, taught by Chris Cullen. In just five years, their work has touched politicians from 40 countries and hosted the first-ever international summit.
Jack, our granddaughter Allie, and I meet with the well-organized Mindfulness Initiative team, a working group of 20+ people from various disciplines sharing the efficacy and progress of mindfulness practice in their fields. To witness their international efforts become global reality fills my eyes with tears of gratitude and joy!
The leaders we met with have a great responsibility; they carry both the dismay and dreams of the people they represent. They’ve found the practices of mindfulness and compassion invaluable to quiet and clear their minds, enable them to listen to each other ‘across the aisle,’ and learn to respond from the deeper calling of their hearts. They tell us it has changed their lives. You, too, carry your own disquiet, your dreams and great possibilities for the world. May your life, too, be guided by the power of your simple, sustained practice of loving awareness and caring presence.
Love, Trudy