January 16

Dear One,

The Feast has now begun. There were so many beautiful opening ceremonies happening around the globe. Some were posted live on our Facebook page!

The annual Feast for the Soul is a beautiful time of year to create a deepening of your spiritual practice.

Whether you connect in person with a local group , or check in on the Facebook Support Group every once in a while, the Feast unites people in their commitment to a 40-day practice of stillness. The Feast is a self-directed program and many people who join it commit to 40 minutes of spiritual practice each morning of the Feast.

You can select from a variety of teachers who have generously offered their meditations for you. take some time to peruse the teachers that have offered their meditations for the Feast. You can see them all here. New meditations are being added all the time!

Today I thought of you and all the other people embarking on the Feast. This is my fifth Feast for the Soul. I wanted to offer you this poem by John O'Dohohue, and during the opening ceremony I honor him and all modern mystics who are inspired by the direct experience of grace. I hope you enjoy it too.

If you'd like to receive an email every day during the Feast, all you have to do is to opt in by clicking the green box below. If you don't choose daily emails, you'll be sent a few emails

This is a time of deep practice. I am practicing with you.

Here's to peace on this planet,

Sarah

Sarah McLean
Director, Feast for the Soul, Inc.
Featured Meditation
Lisa Campbell is a new faculty member for the Feast this year. She is on a mission to bring lasting peace and joy to the world. She's a seasoned meditation and mindfulness Instructor and a US Air Force veteran. She's also on the faculty of the McLean Meditation Institute. Lisa lives in Massachusetts and teaches students of all ages and abilities (especially those dealing with trauma and PTSD) to open hearts through practices of compassion and loving kindness, and to open minds through practices of meditation and self-inquiry. She says she is in spiritual practice all the day through.

You'll love her meditationd. Find out about her, here.

Meditation Tip & Living the Feast
Meister Eckhart was a 13th Century German theologian, philosopher, and mystic. In this quote, he gives good advice for meditation and for starting your day.

It's essential to meet each meditation with a beginner's mind. In fact, by doing so, you allow the gentle and spontaneous unfoldment of your awareness.

When you stop trying to control the spontaneous and you accept how your interior world is while in meditation, you embark on the perfect training for a life of openness. A life of wonder and beauty.

Some say the beginner is the smartest person in the room.
Today, abandon your views about how your meditation is going, when you are not meditating and are walking in the world, abandon your assumptions as to what should be happening, or how people should be acting. See everyone and everything as they are and relieve yourself of your "I know mind." Relieve yourself and others of judgement.